In Reply to: the debate would be over which are the best teams posted by barrya on January 02, 2025 at 16:58:45
Best doesn't always mean Champion.
As we can see, Ohio St was decisively NOT the Big Ten Champion, but they are the best team right now. However, they wouldn't have been in the playoff if it was still 4 teams.
We can also see that the SEC was pretty over-rated. Texas *should* have lost to ASU. They are more talented, but ASU was a Champion, which Texas wasn't, and had far more grit and toughness and determination than Texas did. Georgia had Beck get injured, but while he might have made a difference, he was also inconsistent all year - heck, just look at his 2 halves against Alabama to see that inconsistency in a single game.
One other thing we're seeing is that the layoff for the bye teams had an impact. They ALL fell behind by multiple scores in the first half, and just about all of them were really rusty.