No, you are incorrect, it happened to the Big 12, when Nebraska played in the NC game when they didn't even get to the Big 12 championship game. DD
Thanks! I was wondering cause I thought they put that rule in place After OU lost to K-State Rocket River
Some fans suggested it after that game, but it was never implemented or seriously discussed. There are two main problems. One, it's extremely possible for the two best teams to be from the same conference, and the point of a national title game should be to put the two best teams on the field. Two, and more importantly, the real issue is that it wouldn't be fair since conferences decide their winners differently. For example, in 2003, OU would have won the Big XII by standards used by the Big 10 and Pac 10 (overall record, no CCG).
IIRC, the 2002 MNC game featured unbeaten Miami against Nebraska, a team that didn't even win its own division and got pasted by Colorado in the regular season finale. The Buffaloes played my Longhorns in the Big 12 Championship game that year (a game that Texas should've played Applewhite instead of Simms ) and went on to play in the Fiesta bowl by virtue of being the conference champion. But because of weird-ass computer rankings, Nebraska ended up at #2 thereby securing a spot in the nat'l championship game against Miami. I don't know if the BCS ever modified its rules to keep this from ever happening again, but I know it's happened at least once in the BCS era.
This was potentially an issue last year as well. After LSU lost at the end of the regular season, there was a lot of talk that Georgia (also with 2 losses) was the second best team in the country - and I think they were ranked there. But after LSU won the SEC championship game, people argued that it would be unfair for someone who didn't even make the conference championship game to go over LSU who did win it, so the voters pushed LSU up to #2. I think something similar would happen to OU - unless Texas was the other team. In that scenario, if Texas was #1, it would be understandable that a #2 OU wouldn't make their conference championship game. But people may still try to vote against a rematch.
All this is why I really don't even care much about bowl season. It's just a huge crapshoot. I can really only keep myself interested in Big 12 going ons.
They won't. Ohio State gets a lot of deserved flack for their weak conference and epic failures in the last 2 BCS championship games, but they're starting to grow on me. I am falling for Terrelle Pryor. He has no business doing what he's doing as a frosh.
