Insecurity? Nope. Logic.

Ohio State played the ---66th--- ranked schedule. I mean really, it was full of cupcakes and mediocre teams. their best win before the Michigan State game was against Wisconsin, who is struggling to stay ranked. Not to mention the fact that they barely survived a Michigan team that almost lost to Akron and Uconn.

Then you look at Auburn who beat 4 ranked teams in their schedule including #1 and #5 back to back and whose only loss was to a team OSU probably would lose to as well (LSU)....not very hard to see why SEC fans were sour about a team like OSU possibly getting in over a team that actually had to earn their way there through a tough schedule. It would have been a farce had OSU gotten in over Auburn.

Now by the same merit, FSU played a very weak schedule ranked #61. However they never even struggled in their schedule, so there was really no question about them.

Thank goodness the playoffs are coming next year. No more backing into the championship game because of a weak schedule.

Now go Auburn. Not only do I despise FSU, but the fact that they have a QB like Winston with a "did he, didn't he" story forever hanging over him makes me hate them even more.

Ohio State had an SEC team scheduled, but they dropped out at the last second to play one of the worst FBS teams ever.

I hate living in a town near Notre dame. They just talk about it all the time. Even when they play in the crappy bowl that nobody cares about like they are this year.

At least Michigan State is in the rose bowl GO MSU!

That really depends on what ranking system you're playing, and honestly I do not care. I've seen OSU's ranked as high as 18th. Strength of schedule is a completely subjective point of view depending on who is asking the question. You said FSU was ranked #61. Funny because I looked upped a few and one of them had them ranked at #1. Auburn definitely had a higher strength of schedule than OSU, but if it aint breaking more than 20-30 spots on most rankings, I do not care. The fact remains: OSU 12 wins, Auburn 11 wins. You can argue strength of schedule all you want, but in the end, wins matter the most and weigh the heaviest.

Why do you hate Winston so much when it all has been dismissed? I was accused of grand theft about a year ago, all charges dropped, do you hate me?

Good point. I could take that into account too when an SEC team backs out of the challenge.

SEC teams don't need to schedule super tough OOC games because their conference schedule usually has several ranked teams in it.

Any site that had FSU's SOS ranked number 1 is ludicrous and should be utterly disregarded. and if you don't want to take random sites, just look at the teams that OSU and FSU played then tell me again they played a good schedule.

If wins were all that mattered, then Boise would have gotten in a few years in a row. Who the wins are against is equally important. Thats why I really wasn't impressed with OSU's streak of wins and was expecting them to lose to MSU.

My grad school (LSU) had a down year, but my undergrad school (UCF) had an amazing year. Now I just hope that we don't embarrass ourselves in the Fiesta against Baylor. UCF was already the second-youngest team in the nation before we lost half the defense to injuries. If we get healthy and play like we did the first half of the season, we'll be fine. We play like we did the last six games, it'll be a disaster.

LSU wasn't that bad imo.

My team however. Ouchies.

You're right, it wasn't that bad. We're the only team to beat Auburn and embarrassed Manziel for a second year in a row. The loss to Ole Miss really hurts, had a heart-breaking loss @UGA, and it's never any fun to lose to Nick Saban given his history with LSU.

A win over Iowa to get to 10-wins would make the season a success though, imo, considering we had a very young defense this year.

More than OSU ever accomplished on their schedule. To think that fraud of a team was going to be in the championship game had they won... *rolls eyes*

Strength of Schedule is not a purely subjective thing, by any stretch. You can tally up the records of opposing teams, number of ranked opponents, number of div II or FCS teams, etc. Before the OSU loss, SI posted a http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20131206/bcs-schedule-anolysis/ for BCS title-contending teams. The author was arguing that OSU should get in if they stayed undefeated, in spite of the fact that their schedule was not just weak but "historically bad". Anyway, Michigan State made all that irrelevant, and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the Rose Bowl.

I'm excited. This year is the first time in my life I will be off work for all the bowl games (except one), so I'll probably take advantage and watch a good chunk of them, even the Las Vegas Bowl. Oh wait, the Las Vegas bowl actually looks interesting - Fresno State and USC. I mean I'll even watch the Alamo Bowl... oh that's Oregon & Texas? Even the Chick-fil-A Bowl?? What's going on? All my normal go-to examples of "too many bowls" look decent this year.

Seriously, Rose Bowl is the must-watch one for me. The Orange Bowl as a consolation prize for OSU looks pretty good too. For the early New Year's Day games where there's like 4 games going on at the same time I'll probably watch the Outback Bowl. LSU is always fun to watch.

I get the feeling the orange bowl is going to be a dud. I expect an OSU going through the motions after the letdown of crapping away a chance at the championship. Remember Bama in 2008? I think the same is going to happen to OSU.

I remember something similar in 98 when Kansas State blew their chance at the title game... they ended up losing to Purdue in the "I don't care" bowl.

There are far too many "I don't Care" bowls lately

Omg Its the First Time I saw GStaff post on a normal thread. Im eeing with joy

Last year Florida did the same thing. Had one late loss to UGA and lost their shot at the title game. Then laid an absolute egg against Louisville.