(08-04-2021 10:42 AM)Schadenfreude Wrote: (08-03-2021 09:55 PM)Red Dragon Coog Wrote: If this game were played today, this would have been for the Access Bowl
As it should have been. I am certain Miami was the best team in Ohio that season. Bowling Green beat Purdue and Northwestern that year and we came really close at Ohio State. But we lost to Miami twice, and it wasn't that close either time.
Not necessarily, Miami came in ranked 15th and stayed that way after beating BG, who was 23rd. If BG won they'd have to move up to 17th in order to overtake TCU (19th) and Boise (18th), assuming you assign strictly by week-by-week team ratings at the time archived by Wikipefia.
Back then there were only four BCS bowls (including the title) instead of four NY6 plus two CFP semifinals. You'd probably get the following matchups using BCS rankings and the agreements at the time; depending on the season my Miami may have gone to the Cotton or Peach instead.
CFP (Rose/Sugar): 1 Oklahoma vs. 4 Michigan, 2 LSU vs. 3 USC
Orange: 9 Miami Florida vs. 8 Florida State (same as real life with the Big East/ACC tie-ins)
Peach: 7 Tennessee (SEC tie-in backup) vs. 5 Texas (at-large)
Cotton: 10 Kansas State (Big 12 tie-in) vs. 11 Georgia (at-large)
Fiesta: 6 Ohio State (at-large) vs. 15 Miami Ohio (top non-power team)
Regardless, Miami deserved a lot better than playing a fourth place C-USA team in Mobile (though Louisville would end the next season 11-1 and ranked 6th under Bobby Petrino).