“If Alabama was adversely affected during their Utah game why can’t you say Cincy was adversely affected during the Florida game. After all, they lost their coach at the end of the season AND lost their interim coach just before the bowl game. That obviously affected their play.”
You are not comparing apples to apples...The coach leaving versus missing a chance at a national title by two plays are not the same emotional circumstances.
Cinncy’s record this year suggested that they were lucky to be undefeated...the beat Fresno State 28-20, while Boise beat Fresno 61-10...heck, even lowly Hawaii beat Fresno.
Cinncy gave up 45 points to U Conn (the second most U Conn scored all year, second to the 52 they scored against Rhode Island.
Cinncy gave up 45 points to Illionis who won only 3 games this year.
There were plenty of clues this year that Cinncy was ranked too high...undefeated does NOT always mean a team is great.
As for LSU, if you had seen my college football posts a mid seasson, you would have seen that I many times said LSU was ranked TOO HIGH...they were 107th in total offense in the country and did not deserve their ranking..I really thought Penn State would whip them be a larger margin.
I am NOT saying the SEC will win all bowl games..don’t even know for certain that Bama will win...The SEC does have some mediocre teams...LSU, Kentucky, Auburn, Vandy, Tenn, Mississpi State, etc...but OVERALL most years, it is the strongest and most competitive conference. No other conference sent 10 teams to bowls this year.
Lastly, back to Alabama / Utah last year...I PREDICTED a Utah win...not because I thought Utah better, but because over the years I have seen college teams give up after coming with in a breath of playing for the title...Sabin said after the Florida loss last year that it would be very hard to get them up for the game...he was right.
The coach leaving is much more serious. It affects strategy, playcalling, preparation everything. The national championship is merely an emotional state.
I’ll go along with you and say Cincy was shouldn’t have been ranked number 3, I was shocked they were. After all, Florida had a Heisman Trophy/future Hall of Fame QB among other things.
As far as Cincy’s schedule, you omit they won against Oregon St playing away 28-18. Ore St won Stanford and Calif.
As far as SEC v Big East, UConn won 20-7 against South Carolina which won against Ole Miss, which won against LSU.
The Big East is 1-1 v SEC and 1-1 v ACC
I mean you can go on and on with these comparisons. One can easily say that the SEC is merely Florida and Alabama and a bunch of also rans.
The only two consistent conferences are MWC and MAC; one 4-0 the other 0-4.