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Oct 21, 2021
10:52:37am
krindorr Truly Addicted User
The biggest difference between 1984 and now isn't what you think
Everyone focuses on the CFP vs the polls as the main difference, but the biggest difference is the amount of pure chaos that happened in 1984.

It's pretty easy to argue (as you did in your initial post, albeit as devil's advocate) that BYU wasn't worthy of the national title in 1984. BYU didn't play any teams that were particularly good and they didn't even stomp the mediocre opponents they did face.

But it's very difficult to argue that another team deserved the title over BYU. 1984 was an incredibly chaotic season with teams constantly ascending and then immediately being knocked off. If any one of 5 or 6 different teams had taken care of business, BYU wouldn't have been national champs that year - even if BYU had performed the exact same.

In that regard, it isn't so much about Cincinnati or BYU as it is about the chaos around them. We needed an extremely fortunate set of circumstances to ascend to #1 and Cincy may need similar chaos.

Imagine for a moment that Alabama loses to both Auburn and Georgia, that Utah wins the PAC12 and sends Oregon a second defeat. That Wake comes back to earth and loses two. Oklahoma loses to both Texas and Oklahoma St, then beats Oklahoma St in the conference championship. Rutgers pulls off a miracle win against Penn St.

Under those circumstances, Cincy is almost certainly in. But if Michigan, Oklahoma, Alabama, Oregon and Georgia (except for the conf championship against Bama) win out? Then Cincy probably doesn't have the resume to make it.

Bottom line, they're a good team but whether they deserve it or not depends more on others than it does on them
krindorr
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krindorr
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10/21/21 8:04am

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