It's a better conversation for the rose bowl thread itself, but yes, I agree that the transitive property generally doesn't work in college football. However, when you're looking at more than one example, with the results being so radically different (as opposed to making a long chain that proves that Ohio was better than the national champion in 2000,) I think it's a valid piece of the puzzle when comparing two teams. It's not the thing that makes me confident in a Big Ten loss there, it's just one of them.