Year 3!

In real life, undefeated Oklahoma (under second-year head coach Bob Stoops) claimed the national championship, somehow Oklahoma’s most recent and Stoops’ only, despite many more BCS and CFP bids to come. They would earn that against Florida State, who has appeared in all 3 BCS title games so far. This appearance would be their most controversial yet; Miami were #2 in both the AP and Coaches, and had a head-to-head win over FSU, with an identical1Yes, FSU had one more game and thus one more win. College football records are mainly evaluated by their losses, though. Both teams are X-1, effectively record. The BCS was a weird mish-mash of human polls and nerfed computer rankings2Any computer ranking in the BCS formula was banned from considering margin of victory. This was to disincentivize running up the score, which is good sportsmanship, but unfortunately margin of victory is actually really important to consider for any kind of useful power ranking. and the fact that it would occasionally spit up results like this is what got it replaced with humans in 2014. Anyway Miami handled their disappointment with class and dignity, by which I mean they got in a massive brawl with Florida during the week of the Sugar Bowl (deemed the “Bourbon Street Brawl”), bruising several Gators players. Also they went on to win the game, which just adds insult to injury. Literally!3I’ll be here all week folks!

But! Miami weren’t the only ones mad. 10-1 Washington, champions of the Pac-10, with a head-to-head win over Miami, also had a reasonable claim to that 2nd spot in the championship. Had Miami been selected the Huskies would be the ones crying fowl. The BCS made probably the least defensible selection of these 3, but any way they sliced it they’d be leaving 2 deserving teams out. The biggest flaw with the BCS model wasn’t the weird results it occasionally generated, but the mere fact that it often had to select just 2 teams from a much larger deserving pool.

In my timeline none of that mess happens. All 4 teams get a first round bye, and while I’m sure there’s still grousing over seeding no one would be obligated to care. Our number 5 team are the Virginia Tech Hokies, who in real life missed the BCS bowls entirely, left out in favor of Oregon State (who ranked one spot ahead of them in the AP, at least) and Notre Dame (who didn’t rank ahead of them in anything, but are the biggest brand in the sport so they got special treatment). In our world justice is served, with Michael Vick and Shane Beamer’s squad in and the 9-2 Fighting Irish just outside. After them are in fact those Oregon State Beavers, who had maybe the best season in program history that year, going 10-1 with only a close loss at Washington keeping them from perfection. In reality they got to womp that nepo baby Notre Dame squad in the Fiesta bowl, but I’m sure they’d be just as happy to have an actual championship shot. Teams like this are why I’m interested in this exercise at all; imagine a world where Oregon goddamn State competes for all the marbles. CFB is a rich and deep sport, and should have room to recognize more than the same handful of bluebloods.

Anyway speaking of said handful, Florida! They’re here as SEC champs, in what was honestly a down year for the future juggernaut conference. Alabama went 3-8! That used to be possible! And in the 8 vs 9 game, why if it isn’t a controversy involving Kansas State! The Cornhuskers of Nebraska ranked just one spot ahead of the Wildcats, earning the right to host a rematch of a game KSU won in the regular season. Nebraska gets this higher ranking because they lost, in fact, and thus didn’t win the division on tiebreakers, and thus didn’t have to lose to Oklahoma twice like Kansas State did (instead losing just the once, back in October). KSU also had a loss to Texas A&M in there, as the Aggies remain a thorn in their side. Anyway we can mark this game down as the most spiteful game of the first round, since Florida and Miami miss each other in our timeline. Instead the Gators get to host the Oregon Ducks, who also had an excellent season, handing Washington its only loss of the year. Oregon being here would have been novel too back in 2000, but we know from 2024 that it was merely a sign of things to come. The Ducks, flush with Nike money, would be the nouveau riche team of the 2000s, pairing strong records with garish uniforms. Having to go through the entire state of Florida just to make the title game is probably too much to ask of these Ducks, but they’ll be back.

BCS #11 Notre Dame is, as previously mentioned, not in this tournament. Nor are 9-2 Texas, 9-2 Georgia Tech, or 9-2 Clemson. They’re all out to make room for our final two conference champs. First off are WAC champions TCU. Their 11-1 record is impressive, but has a healthy dose of “ain’t played nobody” so we’ll see if these Horned Frogs are legit. Like Oregon, this hypothetical berth would be a sign of things to come; TCU would be mid-major darlings in the 00s, frequently threatening to crash the 2-team BCS and actually managing to crash the BCS bowls a few times. And while Gary Patterson was merely defensive coordinator for this season, he would become the head man the very next year (technically during the bowl game this season). His Horned Frogs might not be able to take down the Beavers, but regardless they would have the last laugh. 

Our final auto-bid comes from the Big 10, which had a sort of weak year. A three way tie for champion occurred between Michigan (normal, expect to be here), Northwestern, and Purdue. The latter two are absolutely not normal, and it’s a real shame only one of them can get a bid. That team is Purdue, thanks to head-to-head wins over their fellow co-champs. With Drew Brees at QB, Purdue were an early innovator of the spread offense, a scheme that would come to dominate college throughout the 00s and early 10s (and cross over to the pros in the 10s as well!), so there’s a chance they give the traditional and defense-minded Shane Beamer fits. (Also, Purdue lost to Notre Dame earlier in the season, which Irish boosters would be extra salty about. Sorry fellas, join a conference if you want an auto-bid!) 

I think this would have been a really fun spread of games. What do you think? Am I too harsh towards Notre Dame, or not harsh enough?