I still feel we got cheated out of seeing a real legitimate national championship this year.
I realize OSU took advantage of this one year, but at the same time? I'm of the belief that they should not have been in as well in this format.
It feels like at this point sans automatic qualifiers? You may as well just go back to the old pre-BCS system.
What's frustrating is that this is the 2ND time Alabama has finished 3rd place in their conference and then was crowned as National Champions. Did you know they screwed the 2011 Oklahoma State out of playing for the title?
Truthfully, Alabama is very fortunate to have the titles they do this past decade.
2009 season - Colt McCoy gets hurt in the 1st quarter of the National Title game. Bama wins title.
2010 season - Auburn beats Oregon
2011 season - Oklahoma State loses a random Friday night game at Iowa State coming off of a school tragedy when their women's basketball team plane crashed just hours before. Alabama, finishing 3rd in their conference, gets the #2 spot over Oklahoma State and beats LSU in a rematch for title.
2012 season - OSU and Notre Dame finish undefeated and would've met for the National Title in Urban's first year, but the NCAA fucks us over with a 1 year bowl ban. Alabama gets the #2 spot and crushes Notre Dame for the title.
2013 season - FSU beats Auburn
2014 season - OSU beats Oregon
2015 season - Bama beats Clemson (no debate here, Bama won this title fair and square)
2016 season - Clemson beats Bama
2017 season - Well, we all know what happened leading up to the game, and then in the game itself last night. Zero reason that Alabama should've won that game, and very arguable that they should've even been there to begin with.
This SEC playing an 8 conference game schedule + an FCS cupcake is complete garbage while every other Power 5 team plays 9 conference games. If the Big Ten played 8 conference games then OSU is likely playing Youngstown State or some shit rather than Iowa, and is in the playoff while Alabama is playing USC in the Cotton Bowl.
Ultimately, it is what it is. Nothing you can do about it. The NCAA and SEC are both frauds. I love college football more than any sport, but it's really sad that more years than not it's highly controversial who the national champion even is... even in the playoff era, as the playing field is clearly not even for all conferences.