If MI had gotten into the title game & won, does a conference runner up deserve a national championship?

Question

please respond honestly. i am a die hard season ticket holding trojan fan. i still think MI is the 2cd best team. but i cant justify a conference runner up being the national champion. (if mi had gotten into the gameand won)

if there was a playoff and MI had gotten into the title that way, and won, then yes. def no prob. however since thats not the case in college football, which it should be, then i still cant see declaring a runner up the champion. especially in a situation where each team would have a victory over the other.

Answer 1

Sure, a runner up deserves a shot at the national championship.

Two things that people hardly ever mention about all this:

1) The SEC holds a conference championship between the top 2 teams (the east and west winners) to determine a champion. Florida was allowed into this game despite losing to Auburn, a conference opponent. The Big-10 does not have a title game, and awards the championship to the team with the best league record. If they did have a championship game between the top 2 teams, this game would have been played (probably on a neutral site) between Ohio St. and Michigan for the conference title. But Michigan doesn't get that opportunity because their conference uses different rules.

2) Many of the voters and people in the media shared the belief that "Michigan already got their shot at Ohio St. We have to give Florida a chance now." Well, Michigan did get a shot against Ohio St., but it wasn't for the national championship. If Michigan had beat Ohio St., they would have earned the right to play in the National Championship game. If Florida beats Ohio St., they win the National Championship. Huge difference.

Answer 2

Lets be totally honest, UM IS NOT the second best team in the nation the Gators are and if your still a pouty wolverines fan who thinks beating ND was impressive than read this http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=2684345 . Now to answer your question, with out a playoff season and no way to truely pick an undisputed champion, a team must be required to win their confrence, plain and simple. They had a chance, and they blew it. And to claim that they should of won since they really only lost by 3, at The Shoe, is just plain dumb. They were outplayed from begining to end, and were lucky to score any of the points that they did. Take hold of your own destiny, don't leave it up to voters, how bout beating OSU more than once in six years. Confrence winners, especially from confrences like the SEC and ACC (in most years) deserve the shot at the NC over a team who failed to be confrence champs.

In responce to the comments below, the big ten may not have a confrence championship "game" like the SEC, but we all know that the UM-OSU game, as it often has been, was for all intents and purposes the "Confrence Championship" for the big ten. The SEC can have an official "playoff" or championship game because they have 12 teams instead of 11. Michigan had the chance to win the confrence by beating OSU as Arkansas had the chance to win the SEC by beating Florida, they both lost, so they don't go to the BCS NC.

Answer 3

I don't think they got screwed. I think what happened is they lost an incredibly close game to Texas Tech, and everyone thought, "Wow, close loss to a great team!" Then Texas Tech got exposed by Oklahoma as being not even close to a championship caliber team and the tone changed to "These fools beat Texas?" The truth is Texas Tech was never really that good. Hell, they almost lost to Baylor yesterday. You lose to a team that isn't really that good and you're screwed. USC has one close loss on the road as well to a so-so team, and yesterday they just clinched their conference title (as long as they beat pathetic UCLA), something Texas can't possibly do. And yet they cannot make the title game. That's just how it goes. Take solace in the fact that Oklahoma is going to get destroyed by Florida if they beat Missouri (and I don't see how they won't).

Answer 4

didnt nebraska make it into the BullS***Championship game a few years back when they didnt even play in their conference champ. game? Maybe it was oklahoma, either way they got rolled up in the title game, but if you are going to say they could have won it then, yeah why not? The system is garbage, the bowls suck in general, they need at least a 6 team playoff and now!!! No one is going to care about number 7 not making it, but number 3 getting shafted year in and year out is not cool...

Oregon got the shaft when Harrington was their QB (and then the lions got the shaft the next april, lol) Auburn two years ago, undefeated...last year they got lucky when the two undisputed best teams went undefeated...

Answer 5

I think they do. Look at the Steelers last year. They lost the division to the Bengals, but still won the Super Bowl. Think of there were a playoff. Michigan would easily be in the playoff and would still have a chance to win the championship. If they're the second best team, I don't think it matters.

Answer 6

If they are the second best team in the country, even if they are a conference runner-up, they deserve a shot at a national title.

Answer 7

Any team that plays in a championship game and wins deserves their victory. If you have any kind of sense at all you will understand that. Get it , dig it, capiche.