First off, Va Tech wasn\'t the "ninth seed." They were the ninth-ranked team in the country. They\'ve been one of the best teams in college football for years and had wins over four bowl-winning teams: Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia Tech. They also gave USC one of its toughest challenges (which wouldn\'t be too hard since we saw how good California, the PAC-10\'s second-best team, was against Tex Tech), leading the Lambskins at the half before USC rallied on the heels of a questionable pass-interference call.
That said, Auburn dominated the Sugar Bowl, never trailed, led by two scores for most of it, had two tremendous goal line stands, and never let Va Tech have the ball down by one score in the fourth. The result was never in question. Va Tech\'s TD bomb proved meaningless, except for giving the Hokies the backdoor-cover (+6.5). Auburn was too conservative on offense, but give some credit to Va Tech\'s D, especially in the red zone.
You can\'t do much better than 13-0. Congratulations to Utah and Auburn for earning a share of the national title along with the winner of the Orange Bowl. Prediction: USC 38, Oklahoma 14. But you can never say with certainty that Southern California was the best team in college football because they literally accomplished no more than the other two undefeated teams. Their fans should know that well because they got stiffed last year. But for Auburn\'s case, beating four teams with 10 wins isn\'t bad (and it would have been five if not for Iowa\'s late heroics against LSU).
An exciting sport. A laugable system. Auburn got screwed because people thought USC and Oklahoma were better teams in August. That makes sense.
Final scores and point differentials are meaningless. Win the damn game. Nobody cares that the Giants beat Buffalo 20-19 in SBXXV. They won the game and were crowned champions. All the matters is the column on the left.
But unfortunately, from what I\'ve read, school presidents of the big-time DI-A programs, would favor reverting back to pre-BCS days over going with a playoff. Sad.