Four teams were selected for the culmination of the NCAA college series of American football, which is one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States.
Olaus Alisen represented by the Alabama university team made it to the final round of the four-team NCAA college series.
Alabama has won all but one of its 13 games this season. The only loss came in the second game of the season against Texas in early September.
Alabama was selected to the NCAA semifinals as the fourth team, and the uproar has been raised by the fact that Florida State, which won all 13 of its games, was left out of the championship game. Alabama’s advantage, however, was Saturday’s win over Georgia in the SEC conference title game: the loss ended the 29-game winning streak of Georgia, the NCAA champion from the last two seasons.
Alinen has played in four games in his rookie season, most recently in November in a crushing victory over the University of Chattanooga. The Finnish teenager will hardly be seen in Alabama’s next match, but the experience will certainly be quite: the NCAA semifinal on New Year’s Day at the legendary Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California, against the season’s number one ranked Michigan.
The winner will face the winner of the Washington-Texas game a week later in Houston, and at that time the championship will be at stake.
Alabama is a traditional powerhouse in Yankee football, having won no fewer than 18 NCAA championships, most recently in 2020.
California trip?
Alisen, 19, who plays in the offensive line, was followed by dozens of universities when he finished high school. Alinen chose Alabama and has had a good time, says his father, one of the all-time greats of Finnish Yankee football Klaus Alinen. The university does not allow athletes playing their rookie season to give interviews.
– Olaus has adapted very well, he enjoys his life and his studies are going very well. The sports side has also been on the rise. The last time I talked to him was over the weekend, and after the SEC championship, the feelings were of course very happy. Now that Christmas is approaching, school is getting a little easier, and preparations are underway for that New Year’s match against Michigan, father Alinen says.
– The Rose Bowl will surely be a wonderful experience for him.
It’s always the same for the spectators, which the hundred-year-old stadium can hold more than 92,000 (at Alabama’s own home games, the spectators are always full, i.e. a little over 100,000). It is hoped that the family of the young Finnish player will also enjoy Pasadena’s Christmas in the “Ruusukulho”.
– The first two games of the season (in September) were seen on site. And yes, now we are tuning in, if we could get there. If the Rose Bowl is a wonderful experience for the boy, it would be for us as well, Klaus Alinen concludes.