Indiana-Miami is the most unique championship in college football history, plus more CFP takeaways

And now, 14 Final Thoughts from the College Football Playoff semifinals, one of them a classic, the other a laugher.

1. Back in January 2003, No. 1 Miami played No. 2 Ohio State in the BCS Championship Game. Both teams were undefeated. But the Hurricanes, winners of 34 in a row, were considered an untouchable juggernaut, while Jim Tressel’s so-called “Luckeyes” were a whopping 11.5-point underdog. Ohio State’s subsequent double-overtime victory was considered a stunning upset.

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Twenty-three years later, the Canes have finally made it back to a national championship game. Where they now find themselves in the plucky underdog role to the sport’s current untouchable juggernaut: Indiana.

2. We’ve made it, folks, to the last game of the season, and it is without question the most unique national championship matchup in the 28-year BCS/CFP era. In one corner we have No. 1 Indiana, the second-losingest program in FBS history (715), attempting to not only win its first national title but to become the first 16-0 team in FBS history. A team that, in the span of two years, went from losing 52-7 to Michigan to beating CFP opponents Alabama and Oregon by a combined score of 94-25, with a coach who seems puzzled why we’d expect anything less.

And in the other corner, we have No. 10 Miami, attempting to win its sixth national championship — in its own home stadium, no less — but which more recently spent two-plus decades lost in the wilderness. And more recently than that, lost to two middling ACC opponents in the middle of the season, and needed an 11th-hour selection committee switcheroo to get in, but once it did, rolled off three straight wins over Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss.

It’s Indiana versus Miami for the national championship, a regular-old David versus Goliath matchup.