Well, since most of the nation sees Alabama's title as illegitimate (they didn't deserve to be there, and LSU played like they didn't want to play them), I would say LSU definitely has the upper hand here. Alabama can wave their "national championship" all they want to... no one outside that state is really listening.
That isn't the case at all. If we had a 12 team playoff, you could take the champion from each conference (with the WAC and Sun Belt champions playing a play-in game) plus 2 the top two nonconference champions in the BCS standings (or top independent if they have a sufficient ranking in the BCS standings). The regular season would mean quite a bit in that case. If 2011 was like that- Round 1: BYES: #1 LSU (SEC champion) #2 Alabama (at-large #1) #3 Oklahoma State (Big XII champion) #4 Oregon (Pac 12 champion) Game 1- #5 Wisconsin (Big Ten champion) vs. #12 Arkansas State (Sun Belt champion)/Louisiana Tech (WAC champion) winner Game 2- #6 Clemson (ACC champion) vs. #11 BYU (at-large #2- top independent) Game 3- #7 TCU (Mountain West champion) vs. #10 Northern Illinois (MAC champion) Game 4- #8 Southern Miss (Conference USA champion) vs. #9 West Virginia (Big East champion) Round 2: Game 1- #1 LSU (SEC champion) vs. Winner Game 1-4 (USM/WVU) Game 2- #2 Alabama (at-large #1) vs. Winner Game 1-3 (TCU/UNI) Game 3- #3 Oklahoma State (Big XII champion) vs. Winner Game 1-2 (CU/BYU) Game 4- #4 Oregon (Pac 12 champion) vs. Winner Game 1-1 (UW/ArSt-LTU) Round 3: Game 1- Winner Game 2-1 vs. Winner Game 2-4 Game 2- Winner Game 2-2 vs. Winner Game 2-3 Round 4 (National Championship): Winner Game 3-1 vs. Winner Game 3-2
If it was a 16 or 32 team playoff you might be right. But a 4 team playoff would limit it to the true contenders. If we had it this season, it would have made 1-loss Alabama earn its way into the finals by winning a semifinal game against 1-loss Stanford or OSU.
The regular season already means "squat," as evidenced by the lack of crystal in BR this season. And this thread may be for others than just those that desire a playoff. Personally, I love this sport .... but most importantly I R-E-S-P-E-C-T the game. The game and fans of CFB deserve better. The entire sport is corrupt from top to bottom. The individuals that are responsible for governing the sport are neck-deep contributors to the problem. It's about more than a simple format.
Great point, and a true one. The regular season already means squat, or at least the November 5th game means squat.
I appreciate that you're being nice. But moral victories are still losses. I don't like rationalizing when I lose, just like I don't like my opponents rationalizing when I beat them. Bama is the national champion.
I can see why some SEC folks might argue because of the current SEC dominance but it's not true ESPECIALLY when the NCG included two SEC teams.
