Jumbo Package: Tyler Buchner to transfer, early Rose Bowl previews

Happy Tuesday, everyone. The big news of the day yesterday was Tyler Buchner entering the transfer portal.... as a lacrosse player?

Alabama’s first player in the transfer portal may not play football next year. UA quarterback Tyler Buchner entered the portal as a lacrosse player, AL.com confirmed. The portal opened on Monday, one day after the Crimson Tide was named to the College Football Playoff.

Buchner played both sports in high school. He committed to Michigan as a midfielder in 2017 according to Inside Lacrosse, who first broke the news of Buchner’s plans. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Buchner “hasn’t ruled out” football, but due to NCAA rules, he would need to sit out one season if he wanted to play on the gridiron. Buchner would be eligible for this spring’s lacrosse season, however.

Hey, good on him. Maybe he will find success.

We got a few early Rose Bowl previews.

The Crimson Tide are typically salty themselves on D. In fact, this unit might be better than the one that featured Will Anderson Jr. last season. Pass rusher Dallas Turner is having an All-American season. We’ll probably be watching the two best defensive backs in the country as Michigan’s Mike Sainristil and Alabama’s Terrion Arnold each have five interceptions.

Like he was against Georgia, the difference might be Milroe. The comparisons to Tim Tebow are valid — both as a thrower and runner. If things get close — and they will — there is every chance Milroe will be the best ball carrier on the field.

On some level, the existing, um, issues will be hovering over the game. Alabama remains a questionable pick to play for a championship despite winning the SEC title. (We all saw the Auburn game one week prior.) There are still doubts in some quarters as to how Michigan got to this point regarding the sign-stealing scandal.

Alabama has been one of the more resilient teams in the country. The Tide trailed five times in the second half in SEC games this season and rallied to win. In other words, they know how to win close games, and the more they’ve played, the more confident they’ve become in being able to finish games. Alabama’s offense isn’t necessarily built to get into high-scoring showdowns and having to come back from big deficits. But if the Tide are in the game in the fourth quarter, that’s their comfort zone. They don’t get rattled, and Milroe has delivered in pressure-packed situations. — Chris Low

Last, Heather Dinich wrote about how the decision to leave Florida State out of the playoff came to pass.

“All of us had the emotional tie, like, ‘Holy s---, this is really going to suck to do this,’” one committee member told ESPN. “We talked about that over and over, and we just kept coming back [to] are they good enough with what they have to win a national championship, and it just kept coming back [to] we didn’t think they could.”

There wasn’t any discussion about the SEC being left out because the committee maintains that it talks about teams, not conferences. There wasn’t any serious consideration to include Alabama without Texas because there was so much respect in the room for the Longhorns’ Week 2 win in Tuscaloosa. There also wasn’t enough support in the room to deem Georgia “unequivocally” one of the four best teams in the country — the standard for teams that don’t win their conference title.

It really is that simple, no matter how understandably mad online the ‘Noles are about it.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.