ESPN's Jesse Palmer on TCU's national title hopes from today's ESPN College Football Live:
I do not think TCU should be next up if either Oregon or Auburn lose this weekend, no non-AQ school has gone on to play in a BCS national title game. If TCU is given that opportunity then we have set the standard for what non-AQ's have to accomplish in order to get there. ... Lets take a look at TCU's resume here, their best win against an AQ team is Oregon State and Oregon State needs a win in the Civil War to become bowl eligible. TCU's best win period is against 20th ranked Utah and twice this year against non-AQ schools TCU has looked beatable against SMU and San Diego State. In my opinion TCU has not looked good enough and has not done enough to get to the opportunity should either Oregon or Auburn lose. In my opinion Wisconsin or Stanford are two one loss teams to deserve a chance if one of the top two teams fall.
What a joke!
I personally do not get the comment about creating a standard for how a non-BCS team gets to the title game. Really? How about you win all your games and do so in dominant fashion. That comment is baffling.
As for not looking impressive against SMU, TCU beat them by 17 points and SMU is in the C-USA title game. So where is the outrage for Wisconsin who has a few wins that include a one point win over Arizona State and 13 point victory over San Jose State at home, so why are there no complaints about Wisconsin struggling against non-AQ teams.
Stanford has beaten three bowl teams, really four when you count USC and maybe five if Oregon State wins. While TCU has beaten six bowl teams and if Oregon State somehow wins it will be seven. So, right there TCU has an edge, and I do realize while that according to Jeff Sagarain ratings that Stanford has the 8th rated schedule while TCU is at 76th. Looking at margin of victory TCU has a 31 point edge while Stanford has a 22.5 edge in margin of victory.
Taking a look at Wisconsin they have a strength of schedule of 71 which is only five spots ahead of TCU and their margin of victory is 22 and that includes two wins of 70-23 over Northwestern and an 83-20 over Indiana. Wisconsin played four bowl teams.
The argument is tired and a weak attempt at ESPN using their media power to influence voters on how to vote. Did they want TCU to win by virtue of a shutout for every game and score 100 points. Just watching this team (which I am sure not many of the ESPN analysts do) they are dominant and could be any team in the country and I really want them to play Oregon because I think they have the team speed on defense to slow down their offense, whereas Auburn will be in a track meet.
It is so hard to discern if Stanford or Wisconsin is better then TCU and if there was a playoff we could find out, but in the mean time we are all reduced to scouring stats, comparing schedules and even with Craig James' argument in who these teams recruit.