In the BCS era, I think there were 10-11 undefeated teams who did not play for the NC.    Are you sure that Hawaii didn't think that?  Utah?  Boise State?

I'm sure there were an equal number of undefeated teams, pre-BCS, that did not play for the NC.

Maybe none of them thought "Running the table won't be enough" but they found out that it wasn't.   

Right now, it looks like running the table, if you're one of the annointed 65, will definitely be enough.

Were Hawaii, Utah, and Boise State major conference teams?  I qualified my statement with major conference teams, since that's precisely who we've been talking about the whole time.  Under the old system and the current system, the small conference schools HAVE to go big out of conference if they can get teams to schedule them.

Off the top of my head, Auburn missed out as a major conference undefeated in 2005.  That's all I can think of in the BCS era.  I might be missing one.  Under the old system, the chances of you missing the title game as a major conference undefeated were so low that it would never have made sense to schedule an Oregon as opposed to a Citadel to bolster your schedule on those grounds, because your chances of losing that game were way higher than the chances of getting left out as a major conference undefeated team.

Yeah, I missed that part. 

Nonetheless, I'm sure there were some undefeated teams, pre-BCS, that didn't get to play for the NC.   Maybe I'll do the work one day. 

And the point I'm making is that being undefeated seems to be a lock to getting to the playoffs.   If you're one of the 65, it makes no sense to schedule a tough non-con game.    MSU might be a fine example this season for the pitfalls of doing so. 

Posted by MikeT23 on 11/7/2014 2:47:00 PM (view original):
FWIW, I really have no problem with FSU being in the playoffs.  I could make a case for 6-8 teams, including them, to be in.   I'm just annoyed that the two undefeated teams are 1-2 when I don't think they've earned it.    I mentioned earlier that the committee might mix it up later but I get the feeling that undefeated FSU will be #1. 

Mostly I'm just annoyed that we're getting the same old, same old.   I thought tasking a committee to watch the games and determine "best" would produce something else.

Well if you are going by "earned" who exactly do you think has "earned" a top 2 spot if not Miss. St. and FSU. 

Posted by MikeT23 on 11/7/2014 3:34:00 PM (view original):
Yeah, I missed that part. 

Nonetheless, I'm sure there were some undefeated teams, pre-BCS, that didn't get to play for the NC.   Maybe I'll do the work one day. 

And the point I'm making is that being undefeated seems to be a lock to getting to the playoffs.   If you're one of the 65, it makes no sense to schedule a tough non-con game.    MSU might be a fine example this season for the pitfalls of doing so. 

pre-BCS there wasn't a national title game.  There were a bunch of separate bowl games with conference ties.  So you could have had undefeated Michigan playing 4 loss USC in the Rose Bowl, while undefeated Alabama was in the Sugar Bowl against a 2 loss team, undefeated Oklahoma was in the Fiesta Bowl against a 3 loss team, etc.

The BCS era is basically the only era you can look for national title games because that is the only era where there was one.  And in that, Auburn in 2004 is the only undefeated team (from a major conference) that did not play in the title game, and the most common reason why they did not play in the national title game was their non conference schedule was UL Monroe, La Tech, and the Citadel and the SEC was a bit down that year.  That year Oklahoma and USC both played much better schedules on the whole and thus were 1 and 2 while Auburn was 3 (OU and USC were also much better historically which weighs in on the voters). 


The BCS era will also tell you that a significant number of 1 loss teams from major conferences did not play for the national title and would not have been in the top 4 teams if there was a 4 team playoff.  That is why the schedule matters.  And yeah, no AD goes into a year thinking they will lose a game, but the good ones plan for that possibility.  It is why OSU's AD has gone on the record saying they are only going to schedule major conference teams because they don't want their schedule to be the reason they aren't in the playoff.  Increase the strength of the schedule on the whole and you can survive a loss. 

Teams were voted #1 were they not?  

I did say NC which stands for National Championship.     If #1 played #6, undefeated #2-5, did not get to play for the National Championship.

Posted by MikeT23 on 11/7/2014 5:02:00 PM (view original):
I did say NC which stands for National Championship.     If #1 played #6, undefeated #2-5, did not get to play for the National Championship.

That is just nonsense because 1 v. 6 is not a national championship game.  Even if 1 wins, the voters still could vote a new team #1 in the final poll.  In fact that happened to Michigan in the last year before the national championship.  Michigan was 1 in both polls in 1997.  Nebraska was #2 in both polls.  Michigan won the Rose Bowl against 8th ranked Washington St., yet the voters in the Coaches Poll had Nebraska jump Michigan (Nebraska destroyed #3 Tennessee).  In other words, Michigan was #1, won the Rose Bowl against a top 10 team, and yet still was not the national champion in the Coaches Poll.

Playing for a national championship means that whoever wins the national championship game is the national champion no matter what.

There was no national championship game until the BCS.    The #1 team was playing for the national championship.   The #2 team, if they weren't playing the #1, was not.   In the scenario you described, Michigan did not do enough in their game to be national champion. 

hey, who won that first BCS National Championship game?

Was it the dumbass school that fired Fulmer, hired Kiffin and have been bottom feeders ever since?

that has to be the shittiest way to lose a game I've seen in awhile.  oh well.  Auburn is out.  Notre Dame is out as well.  ASU looked pretty darn good, they might actually challenge Oregon if they beat Arizona to close the year

could you imagine the final 4 being missippi st, arizona st and tcu in the playoff none of them were thought be in anywhere near the playoff at this point

if the damn Buckeyes would stop muffing punts and fumbling kick returns, they might actually win this game.