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Clemson's second national title in three years was about 12 hours old when a question on live radio left us almost speechless.

We were a guest (and quickly aghast) on the Sirius/XM SEC Channel, and host Chris Childers asked us to comment on his conclusion from the previous night's Santa Clara smackdown:

Clemson's ability to bash Alabama to bits gave hope to the rest of the SEC that the gap wasn't as wide as believed between the Crimson Tide and the rest of the conference. It was a bright new day in the SEC because 13 other teams now had a recipe to follow in their pursuit of the Nick Saban colossus.