No they didn't. They proved on one day that they weren't as good as LSU and on another day that they were better. It wasn't a true national championship game (though that certainly wasn't LSU or Bamas fault). You can't have a national championship game by proxy! I'm all for having a playoff that would have at large bids which would place the best non-conference champions into the tournament. That's why I'm all for a 16 team playoff.....but not at the expense of marginalizing the conferences. I say make it a 16 team playoff. Win you conference championship and your in automatically. Then fill the rest of the 16 team field with at large teams chosen by a selection committee and use the polls to seed the teams in the playoff.
Well if you are going to use the "any given Saturday" argument, then isn't that the case in EVERY football game and certainly ANY plaoff scenario? Doesn't that also mean that, if OK State hadn't choked and went on to play LSU and happened to beat them, it doesn't mean they are the best team in the country, because on another day, LSU might beat them? Hell.... oSu might be the best team in the country! On any given Saturday, they could have beaten any of the teams they lost to, and gone to the championship, which they could have won, on any given Saturday.... that's the argument you are depending on here.
Alabama played LSU to a tie in regulation, and if you look at game statistics, Alabama outplayed LSU in every aspect of the game, for the entire game, with the exception of one stat... field goals made. They ultimately lost in overtime on a field goal. But from a pure skilled "football-playing" standpoint, Alabama played the better game, despite the losing score. Keep in mind, it wasn't all that long ago, that game would have ended in a tie, as there was no "overtime" in college football. You can even make an argument that the overtime rules, as currently constructed, are patently unfair to a stronger defensive team, as the field is shortened to the advantage of the opposing offense. This 'theory' is actually supported in the result of the second match-up, where Bama's defense dominated the entire game.
Yes, we had a National Championship game, and Alabama took the crystal football home and printed up apparel with 14 National Championships on it... and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it, except to spew sour grapes. The more you whine and moan and try to belittle the championship, it is recognized and will be recognized for all of football history. The way we determine a champion in the future might change, no doubt it certainly will change, and I'm not saying it won't be for the better, but it doesn't and won't erase the past history and traditions of college football, and there isn't anything you can say to make that so.
I think you are delusional if you believe we will ever see a 16-team playoff in our division of college football, it just ain't gonna happen realistically. About the ONLY possible way I could see it, would be if schools agreed to shorten the regular season by a few games, eliminating the non-cons, which isn't going to happen in some cases. There just isn't enough time to play out a 16-team bracket, and the universities are already bitching about the length of the football season. I do believe they are trying to corral most of the schools into super-conferences, so they can implement some kind of tie-in with a playoff, but I think an 8-team bracket is what will ultimately be the objective there. You would have 6 conference champs, and 2 at-large bids. The two at-large would be determined in a sort of 'wildcard' system the week of conference championships, with 4 teams who qualified. In that scenario, you'd actually have the top 12 teams eligible for the playoffs, pretty close to your delusion, actually.
Now... what I have heard we will have coming up, is a "Plus One" ...which means, the top 4 teams in the BCS rankings, will compete in two bowls, the winners will go to the extra (plus 1) game. It's better than what we had, and I believe it may be a 'stepping stone' to what is yet to come. I still think your idea of a 16-team playoff is a LONG way down the road, if it ever does happen at all.
