Anybody seen The Express on HBO - everyone could take a lesson.  Syracuse could have went with playing the lesser team and still acheived a NC - but instead chose to play Texas - so they could find out who was the best team. 
Both the Big 12 and Big 10 have fared miserably the last few years against teams in the SEC and Pac 10.  I know we could argue forever who is the better conference - but facts is facts - both OU and Ohio State left the USC & Florida game with their tail between their legs.  If you can't play with the big boys in the beginning of the season how do you expect to compete at the end?

SEC Best? Maybe - I believe that each conference has it's stars and it's duds and plenty of guys in the middle to make it interesting.  But if you want to claim that you are the best - you need to play the best. Who was the last team to beat Florida in a bowl game?  GoBlue!

For decades Paul Bryant played cupcakes all year long in order to prepare for a bowl game and possible "national championship" and was consistently rewarded by AP and UPI voters who kept picking them high no matter how close a Vanderbilt score may have been. Old habits are hard to break.

So does it work in reverse, as well? Playing a pretender (Georgia) that you think is a contender leaves you unprepaired for an "ordinary" D-1 foe?

Funniest thing is after bleating indignant for a half hour about Bob and Joe scheduling BYU, traber will then rant about how "sissified" our country has become because a game got called due to nearby lightening strikes, or a player won't be allowed to return to action after suffering a concussion.
You don't get it, the show is comedy, like the Stooges.