There should be a 1 point deduction if you are your conference champion. If this was the case USC and LSU would be playing for the NC. That way a conference championship would actually mean something.I know OKLA. has agreat team but USC and LSU both deserve the title game against each other.
I had thought about that or something similar like a one point penalty for not winning conference (so ND would not complain), but in either scenario OU would still be in since there was a 1.04 difference between OU and USC, which is why after I saw the final totals I am more in favor of OU being in the Sugar than I was before. Not that there are not issues still, but just that there was a lot bigger difference between those schools than I had thought there would be.
If that's the case, shouldn't there also be a deduction if you don't play a conference championship game? If you look at the regular season solely - LIKE USC DOES - you don't have to play that extra game against (PRESUMABLY) a pretty good team. The ONLY reason OU isn't the "Big 12 Champion" is because it had to play that extra game. Putting it in BASKETBALL TERMS - they ARE the regular season conference champion (like USC) - they just lost the post season "tournament". Of course, the problem this year would be that, EVEN IF USC PLAYED A CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, they still wouldn't have played anyone decent because the Pac 10 had no other decent teams.
