NCAA recognizes Utah as '08 National Champions

[_moksha]

Ten years later, Utah's 2008 football team is a national champion.

The NCAA’s Football Records Book has been updated to include the Utes as No. 1 in the final Anderson-Hester computer rankings, used in the formula for determining the contestants in the BCS national championship game in that era.

Hester rankings lifted the Utes from No. 2 after the regular season to No. 1 following the bowl games, including Florida’s 24-14 win over Oklahoma for the BCS title. The Utes rating of .812 topped coach Urban Meyer’s Florida team (.805) and Texas (.802).

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-utes/2018/08/27/ncaa-gives-utes-credit/

[_subgenius]

I thought "National Champion" was a title awarded to the winner of a/any "National Championship Game", not the winner of best (and no longer used) formula-ized, computer-ized, and cipher-ized rank.

But to be a little more honest than the thread title - "...that team is listed below the BCS champion."


footnote: In 2008, Anderson-Hester ranked the Mountain West equal to the Big Ten...*cough cough

[_moksha]

But to be a little more honest than the thread title - "...that team is listed below the BCS champion."

footnote: In 2008, Anderson-Hester ranked the Mountain West equal to the Big Ten...*cough cough

Apparently, Utah ended the season with a higher rating than the team that originally had been named #1 in the BCS ranking, by the same system the BCS used at that time. The NCAA was rectifying the oversight.

The Mountain West Conference was probably ranked that year based on the performance of the teams in the top 25, such as Utah, TCU, and BYU. That system negates regionalism and historic expectations and goes solely by the team's performance that particular year.

If based on regionalism and historic expectations alone, Alabama will have already won the 2018 season.