We interrupt your regularly scheduled glorification of Tua Tagovailoa, Nick Saban and all things Alabama football to bring you an important message: The Clemson Tigers are a serious threat to win the College Football Playoff.

That might be a little shocking, considering we’ve spent the past 11 weeks hyping the Crimson Tide as possibly the greatest team ever assembled. Clemson fans must be feeling like Jan Brady, muttering to themselves: “Well all I hear all day long at school is how brilliantly Alabama did this or how wonderfully Alabama did that. Alabama, Alabama, Alabama!”

But chin up, Tigers, because this is all about how great you are.

Saturday’s 27-7 win at Boston College secured Clemson’s spot in the ACC Championship Game, where it will most likely face Pittsburgh on Dec. 1 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Virginia is also a possibility. Either way, the Tigers might be favored by more than three touchdowns—as they should be in their remaining regular-season contests against Duke and South Carolina.

Anything can happen, but it’s starting to feel like these next three weeks are a formality before Clemson locks up either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the playoff. Thus, it’s beyond time to start thinking about how much of a contender the Tigers will be in that final quartet.

First and foremost, Clemson’s defense has been out of this world. This is what everyone had been expecting from the moment Christian Wilkins, Austin Bryant and Clelin Ferrell each returned for one more season. But it wasn’t until early October that this D began to sink its teeth into everything in its path.

Five consecutive opponents have failed to score an offensive touchdown in the first three quarters against Clemson. One could easily argue that’s a more impressive feat than Alabama’s back-to-back shutouts of two of the SEC’s worst passing attacks.

Boston College did score on a fluky first-half punt return, and Louisville took a kickoff to the house after Clemson’s ninth touchdown of that Nov. 3 game. That’s it, though. And even with those two special-teams mishaps, the Tigers led those five opponents by a combined score of 215-22 after three.

We emphasize the first three quarters because things get so out of hand by the fourth that the Tigers typically put in the reserves, let their foot off the gas and allow a meaningless TD. (It happened against NC State, Louisville and Florida State.) But the first-team defense hasn’t allowed a touchdown since September.

In clinching the ACC Atlantic Division on Saturday night, Clemson held Boston College to a mere 61 yards of total offense and six first downs in the first three quarters. The Eagles did eclipse the century mark by the end of the fourth, but they couldn’t crack 2.0 yards per play. Not a darn thing worked for a team that had averaged 37.2 points through its first nine games.

Daren Stoltzfus of ABC News 4 in Charleston, South Carolina, summed up Clemson’s defensive effort quite well on Twitter:

Once a fringe Heisman Trophy candidate, AJ Dillon managed just a long of nine yards against Clemson’s vaunted front seven.

Signal-caller Anthony Brown got knocked out of the game with a knee injury after just one drive, but does anyone think he would’ve made the difference? Brown hadn’t thrown for 200 yards in any of his previous six games, and struggling quarterbacks don’t suddenly find their rhythm against a defense like this one.

Heck, even quarterbacks who come in red hot get cooled off in a hurry by this defense. Wake Forest’s Sam Hartman threw for four touchdowns the week before he faced the Tigers. Both NC State’s Ryan Finley and Florida State’s Deondre Francois had at least 300 passing yards and two touchdowns on “Clemson Eve.” Yet, that trio combined for four interceptions with nary a TD.

Since the Week 2 game against Texas A&M in which Kellen Mond allegedly exposed major flaws in Clemson’s secondary, the Tigers have allowed just two passing touchdowns in eight contests.

They also lead the nation in yards allowed per carry at 2.08, so, best of luck doing anything against them.

And Clemson’s offense has been almost as unstoppable as its defense is impenetrable.

The Tigers never quite caught fire on a frigid night in Boston, but they still flexed their muscles. Immediately after the aforementioned punt return for a BC TD, wunderkind Trevor Lawrence completed all seven of his pass attempts on a statement touchdown drive. He later added the first rushing touchdown of his career, and he finished with 295 passing yards.

Before being taken far out of his geographical and weather-related comfort zone—Lawrence said he had never been north of Virginia before this November trip to Massachusetts—he led the Tigers to 204 points scored over their last four games.

Granted, the defenses at Louisville and Wake Forest aren’t exactly good barometers for success against Alabama or Michigan, but it’s not Clemson’s fault that the ACC has offered no resistance lately. The Tigers just continue to dominate behind the combination of the sensational freshman quarterback and the best rushing attack in the land.

Heading into Week 11, Travis Etienne, Tavien Feaster and Co. were leading the nation in yards per carry at 6.94.

It might seem counterintuitive, but Clemson became an even better running team by switching from dual-threat QB Kelly Bryant to more of a pocket passer in Lawrence. The freshman’s ability to stretch the field makes it that much easier for the backs to find holes in the front seven. And with Clemson’s speedsters, giving an inch is as good as giving a mile.

Of course, this is all hot air until the Tigers run into Alabama in the playoff for the fourth consecutive season. Each fanbase can bloviate all it wants about stat-backed dominance and all-time greatness, but they’ll eventually need to settle it on the field.

Just know that Clemson will be up for the challenge.

The 2018 season is no longer a contest to determine who gets the honor of being dismantled by Alabama.

It’s a two-horse race that the Tigers just might win.

Kerry Miller covers college football and men’s college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.

1. See Ya Later, Jimmy

   Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

   KAT & Wiggins say their goodbyes to Jimmy https://t.co/9dFlbpm3Zy

2. Report: Jimmy Butler Traded to Sixers

   

   via Bleacher Report

3. Sheeesh

   Marlboro Sarri @MrVincredible

   Jimmy Butler to Fultz after two airballs in practice https://t.co/QRXY9erzpj

4. This Will Be Great

   Meredith Minkow @murrminks

   How long til Jimmy yells “shoot a three you coward” to Ben Simmons in practice?

5. Jimmy’s Turning the Page

   Josiah Johnson @KingJosiah54

   “Here’s the 1st draft of your full-page ad thanking the Wolves for—-“

   Jimmy Butler: https://t.co/aJnrorZXig

6. This Could Be Very Real

   netw3rk @netw3rk

   Very excited to watch the last shreds of fultz’s confidence wither under butler’s gaze

7. *Nope*

   Josiah Johnson @KingJosiah54

   “Aye, this KAT and Andrew Wiggins, we just wanted to say–”

   Jimmy Butler: https://t.co/Wj24vQOT5P

8. Yikes

   Complex Sports @ComplexSports

   Markelle Fultz realizing he got to deal with Jimmy Butler everytime he airball a three… https://t.co/p2auz8lB5J

9. Wolves Locker Room Right Now

   #RingerNBA @ringernba

   Now let’s head up to Minnesota to see how the Timberwolves are reacting to the Jimmy Butler trade news: https://t.co/BPSToYAiHd

10. Must-See TV

    Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

    Two of the NBA’s biggest trolls are now on the same team https://t.co/pWwU8tSMSp

11. Accurate

    Wells P @Wells_P

    Jimmy Butler pulling up to Sixers practice https://t.co/qwgLZoRLXr

12. 

    Christian Hall @SpazzLion

    Jimmy Butler when he see Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons shoot the ball https://t.co/7ZIvKbXRTt

13. Welcome to Philly, Jimmy!

    Tribune of the Plebs @Handsome_Jake_

    When Jimmy Butler walks into his first Sixers practice and sees Embiid watching anime, Simmons DMing Instagram models and Fultz crying in a corner https://t.co/aZFv49fXVz

14. This Lands

    netw3rk @netw3rk

    Wiggins hearing about the Butler trade https://t.co/j9jpnL0BHe

15. Oh No, Markelle

    guwop @guwop

    imagine when jimmy sees fultz pull up to the practice facility like this https://t.co/k7U81XTC7N

16. Wizards Fans

    Miles Surrey @HKSurrey

    Nice trade, Sixers! Any interest in John Wall?

17. NAILED IT.

    weird flex, but ok @AdrianTheGoat

    This is my reaction to Jimmy Butler going to the Sixers https://t.co/E5QQW2bmE9

18. Philly Mood.

    Alex @mahaloCS

    Jimmy Butler to the 76ers https://t.co/rCR2eyoOnM

19. 

    Bleacher Report NBA @BR_NBA

    JIMMY GONE https://t.co/auYrtQCwxj

20. GSW Not Concerned

    Barry Stantonberg @BStantonberg

    “Jimmy Butler has been trades to the 76ers”
    The Warriors: https://t.co/jKiIXaXooS

21. Deuces

    Teaser Talk Podcast @TeaserTalkPod

    Live look at Jimmy Butler leaving Timberwolves Facilities. #76ers #Timberwolves https://t.co/G7E6L402ow

22. Prayers for Wolves Fans Right Now.

    Alex Stadnik @Studnik76

    #ESPN: Jimmy Butler is traded to the Philadelphia 76ers.

    Me, a broken #Timberwolves Fan: https://t.co/SbCs7yQNYB

23. 

    Oluwajomiloju @JomiAdeniran

    Jimmy Butler coming to Philadelphia to ruin Markelle Fultz like https://t.co/p86CFLy16X

24. That Must Hurt.

    Brandan Farwick @HD_Farwick

    The @HoustonRockets right now after offering 4 first rounders, and seeing Philly got Butler for nothing. https://t.co/dT6240QaIb

25. 

Carmelo Anthony‘s time with the Houston Rockets hasn’t proceeded as planned. 

According to ESPN.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Anthony and the Rockets “are discussing his role and how they might still be able to proceed together for the rest of the season.” Wojnarowski described the talks as “fluid.” 

Anthony, 34, was out Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs because of an illness. 

But when he’s been healthy, the results have been disappointing. 

Through his first 10 appearances, only two of which have been starts, the 10-time All-Star is averaging 13.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game on 40.5 percent shooting from the field, including 32.8 percent from three. 

Additionally, the Rockets have been outscored by nine points per 100 possessions with Anthony on the floor so far this season. Conversely, they have outscored opponents by 1.8 points per 100 possessions when he’s been on the bench. 

Anthony’s defensive rating of 111.0 is also the worst among all Rockets players who have logged at least 100 minutes this season. 

In the event the two sides can’t find a comfortable middle ground, James Ennis and P.J. Tucker would assume even bigger roles on the wing.  

Stats courtesy of NBA.com. 

Seven weeks after his trade request became public, Jimmy Butler finally got his wish. On Saturday, the Minnesota Timberwolves put an end to the league’s longest-running circus by agreeing to deal the four-time All-Star, along with injured second-year center Justin Patton, to the Philadelphia 76ers for a package that includes big man Dario Saric, wing Robert Covington, guard Jerryd Bayless and a 2022 second-round pick.

The deal was first announced by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.

With this trade, the Timberwolves can put the Butler saga behind them, while the Sixers are going all-in on contending in the Eastern Conference this year and beyond. But the implications of the trade are wide-ranging for the entire league.

Winner: The Timberwolves’ locker room

The toll this Butler drama was taking on the Timberwolves was obvious to anyone who spent time around the team in the early part of the season. He was dictating when he would or would not play—usually coinciding with the Wolves’ national television appearances—and staying around the team in the locker room but not joining them on the bench during games.

He set the tone during training camp with a now-infamous hostile takeover of practice on Oct. 10, followed by an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in which he was unapologetic for the awkward position he was putting his teammates and the organization in as he attempted to force his way out of Minnesota.

Not that coach and team president Tom Thibodeau was blameless. He and general manager Scott Layden dragged their feet in trade talks, holding out hope they could convince Butler to stay and preserve their own job security with some wins in the short term. He also let Butler control the terms of the situation without any pushback, creating the (very fair) perception that he was holding his star to a different standard than the rest of the team. It created a toxic environment that didn’t make anyone look good.

With Butler finally out of the picture, the rest of the Timberwolves can move on quietly and try to salvage the season with hopefully a lot less drama.

Winner: Karl-Anthony Towns

None of those Wolves players found themselves in the crosshairs of the Butler saga more than Towns. The relationship between the two stars was widely known to be irreparable.

Towns has opened the season shooting 45.9 percent from the field, by far the lowest mark of his career, while continuing to struggle defensively. His body language during games has made it obvious he isn’t enjoying any part of this, and it’s telling that his best games of the year have come when Butler has sat out.

Between his new contract and Butler’s departure, Towns is now the unquestioned face of the Timberwolves. He has the opportunity to rewrite a narrative that increasingly had been turning against him in the years since he took the NBA by storm in his rookie season. It’s up to him to make the most of that chance and lead the Wolves to a new era of success.

Loser: Eastern Conference Contenders

What was already shaping up to be a tight race at the top of the Eastern Conference just got even more crowded. In the early going, the 11-1 Toronto Raptors and 9-2 Milwaukee Bucks have set themselves apart, and there’s little doubt the Boston Celtics’ depth and star power see them eventually catch up and maybe even overtake those two teams as the favorite.

The Sixers, one of the preseason favorites to contend in the East, have started the season a step behind that competition thanks to a 1-5 start on the road. The combined non-shooting threat of Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz has proven a massive liability, leading to an offense that hasn’t run as smoothly as it should.

Adding Butler is a game-changer at both ends of the floor. He’s capable of running the offense when Simmons is off the floor as well as playing off the ball and providing another perimeter threat for Simmons to set up. Defensively, he’s been up to the task of matching up with the other team’s best perimeter player. There is no longer a question of who will guard Kawhi Leonard or Giannis Antetokounmpo in a playoff matchup with the Raptors or Bucks.

There is some long-term risk for the Sixers, with considerable reason to question how Butler’s game will age on his next contract. In the present, however, he’ll instantly make them better, and that’s bad news for the other East hopefuls.

Loser: The Heat

The trade market for Butler was softer than it should have been for a player of his caliber, in large part because most of the teams he was thought to be interested in joining—namely the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers—were reluctant to give up young players and picks for a rental when they would have had enough cap room to sign him outright in July.

The one exception was the Miami Heat, who engaged in serious talks with Minnesota over the past two months. The Heat desperately needed to add a star like Butler to vault themselves back into relevance in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. But unlike the Knicks or Clippers, Miami won’t have cap space anytime soon, with big and/or long-term contracts on their books for above-average-but-below-star-level players like Tyler Johnson, Hassan Whiteside, Kelly Olynyk, Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Josh Richardson.

The Heat’s only avenue to add an All-Star is by trading for one, and Butler was their best chance. Who knows when Pat Riley’s next opportunity will come along?

Winner: The Bulls, Somehow

Credit where it’s due: The Bulls’ June 2017 trade of Butler to the Timberwolves was widely panned at the time, but it’s looked better with each passing day.

When the trade was made, the criticisms of the Bulls’ return were more than understandable. No. 7 overall pick Lauri Markkanen was an unknown, Kris Dunn was coming off an awful rookie season, and Zach LaVine was still recovering from a torn ACL. But Markkanen had a much better rookie year for the Bulls than anyone could have anticipated, and Dunn made significant strides at both ends of the floor in his first season in Chicago. Both of those players are injured to start the 2018-19 season, but LaVine is living up to a freshly signed four-year, $78 million contract, averaging 27.4 points per game and looking like a legitimate building block for the Bulls.

To be clear, the Bulls trade was also a no-brainer for the Timberwolves—Butler was coming off a career year and his first All-NBA selection, and pairing him with Towns was too good of an opportunity for Thibodeau to pass up. Their first year together was largely a success, resulting in the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2004. Since then, however, the Timberwolves have become the league’s biggest soap opera thanks to Butler’s wanting out, and the package they got from the Sixers is clearly inferior to what they gave up to get him from the Bulls.

While Minnesota’s future is uncertain, the Bulls’ rebuild is in a good place. All three of the pieces they got in last year’s trade look like keepers, as does this year’s No. 7 pick, center Wendell Carter Jr. With a 3-9 start to the season, Chicago looks like a good bet to land a top-five pick in the upcoming draft lottery to add to what is becoming a promising young nucleus. They made the right decision to move on from Butler when they did.

Loser: Markelle Fultz

Fultz, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft, has not had the ideal start to his NBA career, to put it kindly. He barely played his rookie season due to a bizarre shoulder injury that led to him essentially forgetting how to shoot. He’s played more in his second year and has even started all 13 games thus far, but he’s still shooting just 39.5 percent from the field and 30.8 percent from three-point range.

Adding a domineering personality like Butler to a locker room with Fultz could be disastrous. He’s already had high-profile struggles with confidence in his young NBA career. The addition of Butler may make his situation untenable if his play doesn’t improve. It won’t be long before we hear talk of Fultz needing a fresh start somewhere else to revive his career.

Winner: Dario Saric

Saric has struggled in his third season in Philadelphia with his offensive role lost in the shuffle next to Simmons and Embiid. In Minnesota, he will have the opportunity to be featured more in the offense and slot into the frontcourt next to Towns to provide a versatile offensive threat.

Saric will be eligible for an extension on his rookie contract this offseason, and a bigger role with the Timberwolves is more likely to get him paid than the secondary role he was struggling to adapt to in Philly. The Timberwolves have big contracts on the books for Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Gorgui Dieng, but if Saric turns his season around in a new environment and shows himself to be a future building block, he’ll be in a good position when it comes time to negotiate a new contract.

Loser: 2019 free-agency suitors

This July, Butler will be one of the headliners of a loaded class of superstar free agents that also includes Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson and DeMarcus Cousins. Both New York teams and both Los Angeles teams will be among those with enough cap space to sign one or two of these names, and all of them are well known to be planning on going big-game hunting.

That free-agent pool already took a hit during training camp when Irving publicly committed to re-signing with Boston. Now, unless his pairing with Embiid and Simmons goes horribly awry this season, Butler is all but certain to re-up on a five-year deal in Philly worth nearly $200 million. The reason Butler was so adamant that he wanted to be traded to a desirable destination before he hit free agency was to be eligible to re-sign for a five-year max rather than sign somewhere else for just four years.

Philadelphia is a great spot for Butler, with the young superstar duo of Simmons and Embiid that’s poised to contend for years to come and a passionate fanbase that will embrace him right away. Between the money and the basketball situation, there’s no reason to think he’d go anywhere else this summer.

And so the Knicks, Nets, Lakers and Clippers will be competing for the services of a shrinking group of available stars. That’s before factoring in the possibility that Leonard stays in Toronto or that Durant and Thompson decide to keep the Warriors’ run going for a few more years. The big-market teams hoarding cap space to go superstar shopping may well come home empty-handed.

Winner: LeBron James

For the past four years, LeBron James had made the Finals in Cleveland with supporting casts that ranged from “pretty good” to “extremely shaky.” That wouldn’t have been possible this year, when it can easily be argued that the top four teams in the East—Toronto, Milwaukee, Boston and this new-look version of the Sixers—are the four next-best teams in the league behind Golden State.

Not that James’ Lakers haven’t had their share of struggles in his first season in Los Angeles; they have plenty of issues that still need to get worked out. But as far as his legacy is concerned, nobody will hold it against him if he loses to the Warriors in the playoffs, because nobody in the Western Conference can be reasonably expected to beat one of the greatest teams in NBA history. James chose to sign with the Lakers knowing it would be an uphill battle to seriously contend, at least until they add another superstar in an upcoming free-agent class. The expectations for his first year in Hollywood are much lower than they would have been had he stayed in Cleveland, and his competition there would have been steeper than it ever was before.

James got out of the East at the exact right time, when it stopped being a foregone conclusion that his seasons there would end in a trip to the Finals. That was true before Saturday, but it’s doubly true now that the Sixers have added Butler.