re: How much of a factor did the 2019 National Championship game being in New Orleans matter

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A point of perspective on this game - a playoff game: Oklahoma didn't really deserve to be in the playoffs as no rational person thought they were the 4th best team in the nation at that time. Now, I'm not saying they were shite. They were a good team and probably a Top 8 or Top 10 team for 2019, just not playoff worthy (with 4 slots).

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I'm going to disagree, simply because my question is this:
Who do YOU put as #4 that year? Alabama? Sure, except for that second loss in the Iron Bowl. UGA? We just slapped them around in the SEC championship. And so on and so forth.

Oklahoma was a legit #4, but the problem was this:
LSU was in a tier of their own at #1. Could score basically at will on anyone, and the defense began to stiffen late in the season.

Ohio State and Clemson were in the next tier, damn good, could likely beat almost anyone, and could threaten LSU if they were on their game and LSU wasn't. Bama with Tua that year is in that tier (but Tua was out at the end).

Oklahoma was the next tier, a threat to outscore Ohio State or Clemson etc, again if they're on and the opponent is off. Bama with Jones would have been in this tier but with 2 losses, same with UGA. In theory, if Oklahoma would have been hot and LSU's defense was like it was against Ole Miss that year, Oklahoma probably gets over 40, and the game is wild as frick. But yeah, LSU would have scored a TD on every drive if they wanted to.

There really wasn't anyone else at that level. Utah was nice and had a good defense, nothing elite.