i guess we differ on our view of greatness liper... having fulmer year in and year out (last yr not withstanding) keep us in the "upper echelon" as you called it works for me. I would even consider that number as low as around 15. I wonder what we would do in the Big East or ACC where the competion isn't constantly as tough from top to bottom as it is in the SEC. i agree w/ you that our NC system is flawed, because SEC teams get penalized for tougher schedules, because it results in closer games, which hurts in the rankings. i also think spurrier does seem to have an upper hand against fulmer when you throw everything out and just look. which is why I think we should win this game very easily, but I won't be surprised to see spurrier have something up his sleeve and destroy our BCS chances
That's fair. I mean, I understand that this is all water cooler-based, subjective opion stuff. So there's room for that.
Where I see CPF as falling a little is that, when we should be unstoppable we're really good. When we should be really good we're pretty good, and when we should be pretty good we're very average. We're almost always one or two rungs below where we could be.
2000. We went 8-4 with a blowout loss to K St (Big 12) and finsihed unranked. Had the most players drafted from any school by the NFL after the season.
2001. Good year with no titles. Lost to two inferior opponents with an NFL team on our side.
2002. We went 8-5 with 4 losses by more than 17 points. One of which was to a mediocre Maryland team (ACC) in the Peach Bowl. Unranked.
2003. Went 10-3. Good win at MIA. Got humiliated at home by 27 to GA. Lost by 17 to an average FL team. Lost badly to an unranked CLEM in the peach bowl (ACC). Top 25 ranking.
2004. Great year for the situation. Beat so-so FL. The great win was at GA that year. Once again, embarassed at home on TV by AUB, continuing a trend of egg-laying losses at home.
2005. Nuff said. Team had better talent than this team and went 5-6. Unranked.
Indicentally, we had one of the best Defenses in the country last year, had more talent on offense than we do now...and went 5-6. That team was NOT overrated from a talent standpoint, which is important to view last season as one of the worst coachin jobs in recent memory at a top school. 5-6 doesn't even do it justice.
To me, this slide is huge. We have not been one of the elite teams for quite some time. At best, we were a 3rd tier team (if looking at the 30 or so schools).