No experience required at Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State

— -- This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Dec. 26 / Jan. 2 Issue. Subscribe today!

AN HOUR BEFORE the sidelines at the SEC championship game are lined with Southern football dignitaries. All available previous MVPs of SEC title games are here, along with current coaches of teams that didn't make the game and a pair of television news desks, one from ESPN, the other from CBS.

Retiring play-by-play man Verne Lundquist greets a receiving line of well-wishers at the CBS desk, all while sidestepping Alabama's warm-up drills. The defending national champ is preparing for a game it will win 54-16 over Florida to remain undefeated and formalize its invitation to the College Football Playoff.

"These dudes are so big it's a little scary," says former Gators QB Danny Wuerffel, extending his hand after waiting in line.

"No," Uncle Verne replies. "What's scary is that most of them are still teenagers."

Anyone who bought the 2016 college football preview magazines last summer will remember the questions. How will Alabama replace Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry? How will the Crimson Tide account for losing quarterback Jake Coker, a 23-year-old transfer from Florida State with five years' experience? How will they replace 11 starters? (Those questions were posed in ESPN The Magazine's preview by the same scribe you are reading right now.)

Alabama entered the season with the SEC's least experienced roster. Ohio State did the same in the Big Ten. Ditto for Clemson: bottom of the ACC. But it was actually much starker than that. Phil Steele, the king of preseason mags, uses a five-part formula to determine experience, and he ranked the Tide roster 116th out of 128 FBS teams. Clemson was ranked 101st. Ohio State was dead last at 128th.