Exactly my favorite teams was Nebraska, USC and Georgia. Hell at that age didn’t even know what conferences they were in. It was never discussed. Hershel Walker, White, and Rosier all were fun to watch. The Pony Express.
The BCS era or TV explosion the SEC propaganda machine kicked in where the conference was more important than their teams. The selection process was more about predicting the winner.
The beauty of the playoff is, for the most part, it is proven on the field. Notre Dame, an independent, is playing for the title. They probably don’t make it in the BCS era.
I do understand why people lean on conferences, I know it is was a good way to evaluate a team, but it is no longer valid with the scheduling and playoffs. Look it is still going to be brand teams in the final game. They just have more resources than the majority of teams they are competing with.
Well what happened was the SEC kept winning and it happened at a unique time. People forget that the SEC bias didn't really happen until teams just kept winning. All the other conferences failed, mainly the Big Ten
1. Saban and Urban Meyer had Bama and Florida at the top of the county. It made people watch
2. Ohio State getting blown out in the 2006 and 2007 title games by SEC teams with losses added to it.
3. Texas falling devalued with Big 12. Not to mention Texas A&M, Nebraska, and Missouri leaving the league
4. USC falling made the Pac12 irrelevant, plus that league fell apart.
5. The Big Ten hit a really bad stretch as Michigan was pretty bad from 2007-2014. Penn State fell for a bit after the Sandusky scandal. Not to mention Ohio State had the Tressell scandal. The Big Ten didn't play in the national title game from the 2008-2013 seasons
6. The ACC was flat out TERRIBLE due to Bowden's slide at the end of his career & Miami becoming irrelevant. Clemson really didn't become a true national force until 2014-2015. The league had a 10-15 year run where you really didn't think about any ACC team playing for a title
7. Notre Dame would get blown out on the big stage.
And finally, the SEC just kept winning. Florida with Meyer and Tebow. Saban's dynasty. LSU winning the title with 2 losses which led to "a 2 loss SEC team could beat a conference champion!". Auburn and Cam Newton. Not to mention Georgia was right up there at times. You had top teams and the most NFL talent. The SEC delivered and every other conference was down for a 10-15 year span.
There was some bias, but as a fan from that era I remember the SEC just taking care of business. They passed the eye test most of the time. They won the big games on the big stages more often than not.
When Texas fell off, it hurt the Big 12 as a whole became devalued as it wasn't must see TV. Not to mention losing quality programs like A&M, Missouri, and Nebraska
When USC fell off, the Pac 12 as a whole lost a lot of national interest. Then when Chip Kelly left and Oregon had their decline, the entire league didn't matter.
The Big Ten pretty much felt like the Ohio State invitational that would never win, until finally OSU winning the 2014 title and Harbaugh/Franklin bringing their programs back finally made them feel relevant, but they still had a terrible division in the west.
The ACC never had the trio of FSU, Miami, & Clemson all good at the same time. FSU falling off made the league boring. Miami being average took a lot away. Clemson's run really kept our league credible combined with Jameis Winston.
The SEC always had a few really good teams and a lot of talented players. There was some bias in ranking and giving them a little too much credit, but they were proving it and being strong while the other conferences just fell apart.
