Without doing a statistical analysis to confirm the following, I think it's pretty obvious that the NC game is typically participated by teams which are clearly superior teams playing in average or poor conferences.
Tennessee v. Flast. Tenny is one of the few exceptions to the rule, making the championship game out of a true "power" conference. Flast - especially in 98, was the only team worthy of respect out of the ACC
Va Tech v. Flast - Big Least v. ACC. Nuff said
Oklahoma v. Flast. Big XII, despite the hype is a grand total of 3 teams (at the time) OU, Texas and Nebraska (again, at the time). ACC still sucked ass if you exclude Flast.
Miami v. Nebby Here again, a superior team in a dreadful conference (Big Least) v. a Big XII "power" that has the luxury of beating up on the likes of Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and so on. Teams with reps of being occasionally decent. In fact, this particular game exemplifies my point. Nebraska was exposed, if you'll recall.
Miami v. Ohio State - Big Least champion v. Ohio State. In 02, the Big Ten was in pretty good shape power-wise, but OSU did miss Iowa that year.
Oklahoma v. LSU - Big XII v. SEC. Hats off to LSU. Yet another Big XII team getting exposed.
Oklahoma v. USC - Pac 10 and Big XII... thrilling.
Texas v. USC - OU fell off the radar and Texas took the reigns. As we all remember this Texas team was actually very very good. Again, my point here is NOT to argue the participants in these games were somehow unworthy, just that they came from conferences which were weak. Pac 10 - like the old ACC is USC and everyone else.
Ohio State v. Florida - Last year, I think it's fair to say the Big 10 was truly the big 2 little 8 (9 as it is now) again. Florida did indeed have to run through a honestly tough SEC. True they had OOC creampuffs, but I don't think it's fair to expect any school to play a top 25 power week in and week out either.
So, by my "gut" reaction to these games, I see about 15 (give or take - I'm giving OSU 02 a "power conf." rating.. it occurred to me that the B10 went 6 - 0 in bowls or something like it) out of 18 title game participants got there coming from weak conferences. Again, I have not researched actual stats to back up my claims, and I leave room that the numbers might bear out a different truth. Still, it seems the BCS era has taught us that the formula to getting there is to field a nationally competitive team against a "down" conference/schedule.
This bodes well for OSU's schedule this year, although I must confess I don't expect OSU to go undefeated like I did last year. That said, I surely did not expect it in 02... though I did in 98...
It does NOT bode well for SC or LSU. I hesitate on SC, actually. I don't feel the PAc 10 is particularly strong, even now, but their OOC is legit.
As I would say even if this was mid-October... Nothing is close to settled.
