"You're really graspingn now. The LSU-Oklahoma game wasn't close either. LSU dominated the game from start to finish." 21 to 14 isn't close?????? Yes, college teams may change but Oklahoma was sufficiently stable enough to go to the national championship game 2 years in a row (something LSU couldn't do.) Both USC and LSU faced the team lead by a Heisman quarterback. USC pounded them. LSU didn't. USC can't help what conference they are in, so the only way to evaluate them is to make such comparisons. Incidentally, you talk about the injury risk from a so-called tougher conference, but shouldn't playing in a weaker conference also make the dominant team in that conference ill-prepared and unchallenged? Yet USC rises to the challenge and wins those nonconference games.
Exactly, Oklahoma played in a relatively weak Big-12 while LSU played in an SEC that was very strong.
This is nothing against the Big-12. I think that most Big-12 fans can agree that the Big-12 was very top heavy during Oklahoma's run - Nebraska was down as was Kansas State. Texas was very good and was really their only challenge.