Two teams that are used to facing each other in championship games in college football will now turn to the NCAA Tournament for the first time and face each other in the championship game in the West region of the 2024 NCAA Tournament when the 6-seed Clemson Tigers face the 4-seed Alabama Crimson Tide in Los Angeles, California at the Crypto.com Arena with the game tipping off at 8:49 PM ET on Saturday night and airing on TBS.

The Clemson Tigers pulled off the upset against the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16 and covered the 7-point spread as an underdog by winning the game outright against the Wildcats in a game they controlled from tip-off after starting on an 11-4 run to start the game and had an eight-point lead at halftime by a score of 39-31. 

The Tigers would only trail the game for 19 seconds following a two-point basket made by Caleb Love to give Arizona a 46-45 lead, however, Clemson would answer by going on a 5-0 run and regaining the lead 50-46 and the game would be tied with 9:55 left to go in the game at 56-56 before Clemson would go on another 5-0 run. The Tigers have pulled off upsets in their last two games in the tournament following a 72-64 win against the Baylor Bears in the 2^nd round and a 77-72 win against the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16 and were 4.5-point underdogs against the Bears and 7-point underdogs against the Wildcats. 

This will be 2^nd appearance in school history in the Elite Eight with their last appearance coming in the 1980 NCAA Tournament which resulted in a loss against the UCLA Bruins by a score of 74-85. The Clemson Tigers will look to advance to their first Final Four in school history with a win against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Despite being a 4-seed, there weren’t a lot of people projecting the Alabama Crimson Tide to advance to the Elite Eight which was due in large part to their defensive efficiency as they were one of the worst teams defensively during the regular season allowing an average of 80.91 points per game which was the most given up of any team in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and the 8^th most allowed nationally. Their defense hasn’t been great in the tournament either as they have allowed an average of 81.33 points per game in the first three games of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. 

However, the Crimson Tide have been one of the highest-scoring teams in college basketball this season as they ranked 1^st nationally in scoring with an average of 90.74 points per game, and that has carried over to the NCAA Tournament as they are averaging 90 points per game in their first three games of the tournament. This will be Alabama’s 2^nd appearance in school history in the Elite Eight with the other appearance coming in the 2004 NCAA Tournament which resulted in a loss against the UConn Huskies by a score of 71-87. 

The Alabama Crimson Tide will look to advance to their first Final Four with a win against the Clemson Tigers in the Elite Eight on Saturday night.

WagerWeb has the Alabama Crimson Tide listed as 3-point favorites against the Clemson Tigers in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Saturday night. Clemson has won five of the six games all-time in the series with the most recent meeting resulting in an 85-77 win for the Tigers earlier this season on the road.

Both teams will be looking to advance to their first Final Four in school history on Saturday and neither team has been in an Elite Eight game in over 18 years. Clemson and Alabama played earlier this season in Tuscaloosa with the Tigers winning the game on the road by a score of 85-77 and covering the 8-point spread as a road underdog by winning the game outright. 

Both teams are among the highest scoring teams nationally as the Tigers rank 79^th nationally with an average of 77.23 points per game while the Crimson Tide leads the nation in scoring with an average of 90.69 points per game. 

I look for this to be a high-scoring affair on Saturday night which is why I am buying the .5 point and taking the over on the point total when these two teams face each other in the West Region championship game.