The SEC’s University of Alabama is in Tuscaloosa and the ACC’s Clemson University is in Clemson, South Carolina. The schools are only about 325 miles apart. Yet before the 2015 college football season they had played just once since 1975 (2008).

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

On Monday night at Levi’s Stadium outside San Francisco, the Crimson Tide and Tigers play in the College Football Playoff for the fourth year in a row and third time in the national championship game. The Tide are 6-point favorites. It’s the first time in college football history two teams have met in a bowl game a fourth straight season.

The College Football Playoff is only in its fifth year so it might be too soon to classify anything as a trend. However, one is working against the Tide – the only school to make all five editions of the playoff. That being the top seed has yet to win it all (neither has a No. 3, but that’s a story for another day).