I want to point something out here that really is just kinda setting me off as my "superior autobiographical memory" tunes in.
I remember 1992 vividly. ESPN (oh btw a guy named Brando worked there at the time) was vilifying us, calling us "undeserving" and repeatedly insisting that "Miami and Florida State are the two best teams in the nation." They even brought Corky Simpson into the fray, telling everyone he was the singular voter who didn't have a lick of sense when we were 7-0 and had "barely beaten La Tech."
Then the Sugar Bowl was actually played. 34-13. The same news media that wanted a rematch then - in the final poll - had Florida State AHEAD of Miami despite the inconvenient fact that Miami had beaten them head-to-head. It was a final slap in the face of the Tide, suggesting that had we played Florida State then we would have lost. (It was left to one of my LEAST favorite pundits, Mike Lupica, to put the brakes on when other "Sports Reporters" said, "Well, Florida State is playing the best at the end of the year." His comeback was, "Well, we hear that every year, but they always choke in the one game they need to win. You can't do that and be the best."
Fast forward one year, 1993. And the most irrational hype-fest in NCAA history.
All year long it was the Super Bowl. Florida State-Notre Dame. The Noles were trailing 31-10 but came back to almost tie it. So they only dropped to number two. DURING THE FREAKING GAME they were already talking rematch on NBC. There was another unbeaten sure to run the table - Nebraska. So over the course of the next week, the TV pundits ran Nebraska into the ground. This same team, after all, was compiling a long losing streak in the bowl games and had already lost THREE TIMES to FSU in the previous six years in bowl games. They were trashed from one end of the universe to the other as "undeserving."
Too bad Notre Dame had to lose the next week to Boston College. They plummeted in the polls.
The moment Notre Dame lost guess what happened? The very same pundits who trashed Nebraska suddenly looked and said, "Hey, if Nebraska wins out then Nebraska-FSU would be a FANTASTIC game." Bunch of liars. Left out in this mix was West Virginia. The same press now ran West Virginia in the ground, telling us they didn't play anybody - never mind that West Virginia beat the same BC team that Notre Dame couldn't. Never mind that WVA played in the same conference as Miami - and nobody ever questioned Miami's soft-touch schedule despite the fact the only difference between the two was Miami played Florida State.
So we got stuck with FSU-Nebraska. The refs basically gave the Noles the game and Bobby Bowden a Lifetime Achievement Award.
I've actually been a tad bit happy there hasn't been much talk about the virtues of a rematch. But let's be honest - why did they praise Nebraska and run down WVA? Simple. Nebraska has a national following, WVA does not. Alabama benefits the same way with OK State, which is why it's a good thing OU went down last week.
CBS is just afraid that the BCS title game will break all records for viewership of college ball - and it won't be their network that does it.
