If Iowa State hadn’t beaten Oklahoma, the Sooners would have gone undefeated. The College Football Playoff semifinals would have been (1) Oklahoma vs. (4) Alabama and (2) Clemson vs. (3) Georgia. We might not have avoided an all-SEC final, but the games would have been different.
If Iowa hadn’t taken Ohio State to the woodshed, the CFP likely would have taken the Big Ten champion and left out Alabama, who didn’t win its division let alone its conference. (Whether the Big Ten would have scored in the CFP for the first time in three years is a different question.)
So for the second time in the 2010s, Alabama has a national championship because a team in Iowa won a game it shouldn’t have.
Strong with the Dark Side, Lord Saban is.
(Be thankful you are not a Georgia Bulldogs/Atlanta Falcons fan who loved “La La Land,” because…oof.)