It has been just over a week since one of the craziest, most unprecedented college football seasons came to a close. After hundreds of cancellations and postponements, Alabama has reclaimed its spot on the throne of college football after slaughtering Ohio State in the National Championship.
The end to another dominant season in Tuscaloosa has led many to the question: Was the 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide offense the best that college football has seen? 
This comes just one year after people thought the 2019 LSU air-raid offense was the highest caliber offense to ever take the field at the collegiate level.  
Each team capped off its season by hoisting the trophy, but the two respected Southeastern Conference programs went down different paths to get there. Each path placed its own set of challenges and both conquered each and every one of them, giving the pair of programs a viable argument for being better than the other.  
As if playing in the SEC is not already trying enough, the Crimson Tide were on the receiving end of having to play a gauntlet, conference-only schedule, one thing that the 2019 LSU Tigers did not have to endure. 
Alabama impressively breezed through its conference-only schedule, posting a perfect 11-0 record. But the way that they did it made it that much more impressive. Amidst a worldwide pandemic – amid COVID-19 and against arguably the best conference in college football – the Crimson Tide put up over 40 points in each of its conference games, averaging just a tick under 50 points per game at 49.7. But to be fair, Alabama did this during a pandemic, so who is to say that each team was at full strength at the time of their meeting. 
Much like the Tide, LSU had a perfect season of its own as the Tigers joined the 2018 Clemson Tigers as just the second team to march to a 15-0 record. Although Alabama battled through an all-conference schedule, it still did not live up to the amount of talent that LSU faced.  
Of the 15 teams that LSU played, seven of those were ranked in the Associated Press Top-10 Poll at the time of their meeting. While some of those teams dropped off after, they were considered among college football’s elite at the time. With this, LSU became the first team to beat seven Top-10 teams in Texas, Florida, Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Clemson. Not only did the Tigers come out victorious, but they did it in blowout fashion, defeating each foe by an average of 20 points. Looking at the season from a whole, the Tigers’ 48.4 points per game, totaling 728, set an NCAA record for most points scored in a single-season. In addition, the Tigers became the only team to defeat the entire AP Preseason Top-4, three coming in the final games. 
Picking apart the teams, the easiest place to start out is with the pair of Heisman Trophy winners who flew on the radar before rising to fame, former LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and Alabama wide receiver DeVonta Smith. 
Burrow came to LSU looking for a fresh start after failing to see the playing field at Ohio State. In his first year sporting the purple and gold, Burrow led the Tigers to a 10-3 record. It was not until his second season where he started gaining national recognition. In its season opener against Texas, Burrow put up an astounding 471 yards and four touchdowns. Little did anyone know, that was just the beginning for Burrow. The success continued to roll as the graduate transfer ended up breaking numerous records, including the single-season FBS touchdown passing record with 60 and all-time passer rating with 202. In addition, Burrow claimed the SEC single-season passing yards record with 5,671, placing him third in college football history. 
Alabama took a crushing blow in the beginning of the season as future first-round draft pick wide receiver Jaylen Waddle suffered a season-ending injury, leaving the Tide without arguably the most coveted receiver in college football. With this, Smith became Mac Jones’ go-to man, where he ultimately became the first wide receiver to hoist the Heisman Trophy since Desmond Howard in 1991. Smith racked up 1,641 yards on 105 receptions, averaging 15.6 yards per catch and adding 20 touchdowns.  
Lethal offenses aren’t just made up of an individual player, and these two teams exemplify that as they put out high end talent across the board. 
For LSU, Burrow was complemented in the backfield by running back Clyde Edwards-Healaire. The Baton Rouge native was often overlooked his entire life because of his size, but then-Passing Game Coordinator Joe Brady found a special way to incorporate Edwards-Helaire’s talent into the new offense. Edwards-Helaire’s play out of the backfield added another weapon to the LSU offense. Drawing comparisons to New Orleans Saints’ Alvin Kamara, Edwards-Helaire shined through the tackles and in the flat. At 5-foot-7, 207 pounds, Edwards-Helaire swifted his way down the field, exemplifying his elusiveness and ability to break tackles. The now-Kansas City back put together one of the best seasons by a running back in LSU history with 1,414 yards rushing and 453 receiving yards on 55 receptions.   
For Alabama, it had a star back of its own in Najee Harris. Unlike Edwards-Helaire, the spotlight was nothing new to Harris as he was the No. 1 ranked running back prospect in the 2017 recruiting cycle, with good reason. The 6-foot-2 Alabama native carried a similar role as Edwards-Helaire did for LSU. Harris’ 1,466 yards on the ground, 425 catches and 30 total touchdowns were good enough to land him fifth in the Heisman voting. 
Although neither of LSU’s wideouts won the Heisman, both had extraordinary, break out seasons. The pair of superstars – Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson – became one of, if not the best wide receiver duos in LSU history. 
Chase and Jefferson became just the second wide receiver duo in LSU history and the fourth in SEC history to have 1,000 yards receiving in the same season, according to LSUsports.net. 
Both Jefferson and Chase were finalists for the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation’s top wide receiver, but it was Chase who ultimately won the coveted award.   
Post-season awards are often overshadowed by on-the-field success, but these two programs swept its College Football Awards, placing winners in almost every category up for grabs.   
The 2019 LSU Tigers continued to shatter records after the conclusion of the 2020 NFL Draft, when they saw five Tigers selected in the first round and 14 overall. The handful of first-round picks fell just one shy of tying the 2004 Miami Hurricanes for the most first rounders. Through a trio of rounds, LSU had 10 players selected, which tied Ohio State for the most picks in three rounds. 
While we are still awaiting the 2021 NFL Draft, only time will tell the fate of Alabama’s success in regard to the draft, but the team is to see similar success. 
The two schools share similar qualities, talent and success across the board, but one thing gives LSU the edge over Alabama: the quality of competition that it faced and the amount of success that it saw in those games. And frankly, the success, combined with the talent that it faced, may never be matched. 
Respect is given where respect is earned, and both of these squads earned that. 
There’s no debate that these squads are a pair of the highest powered offenses in the history of college football, but when it comes down to it, the Tigers reign over the Tide. And that is non-debatable.