Branno
All-Conference
They earned it in the same sense that Michigan "earned" a national championship in 1997. Alabama had their chance to win the SEC West and they lost. Oklahoma State had the same record, but won their Conference (yes they lost to Iowa St, but I still think the plane crash affected them for that game).Because a few non-SEC teams earned the opportunity to throttle LSU, but were denied.
Why shouldn't it have been played when Alabama dominated them and was the better team? Isn't the national championship supposed to go to the best team?Because the Bama/LSU rematch is the entire reason we have the playoffs in the first place. The outcome of that doesn't really matter when it shouldn't have been played in the first place.
I for one don't want my shiny brand new playoffs to turn into a 4 game second SEC championship.
I agree with you guys and think OSU should have been in the title game but with the playoff I think preference should be given to conference champions but it shouldn't be an absolute rule, because if we're honest Bama earned that title even if they didn't deserve it.
You cannot be the best in the country if you can't win your conference or even division. Imagine the asterisks next to our championships if we played Oklahoma for them instead of another conference.