As far as I know there has never been a requirement to consider the loser of a conference championship game #2 in a conference. There are times when a team with only 1 loss to the eventual champ doesn't get a chance to play in a title game (being from the same division) and the opponent in the title game is a 2-3 loss team (from the other division) going into the championship game. No way do leagues automatically make the loser of a championship game their #2 team...