When Should a 2-Loss Team Play For the BCS National Championship?

[Mr_Touchdown_USA]

The subject says it all. So here is my situation, in Dynasty mode, the Georgia State Panthers in the year 2018 lost their first game (albeit a competitive one) in 2½ years to the Washington Huskies, however lost happened early in the season (week 3). At the time, we were ranked #8, the loss bumped us to #13 but near the end of the season we were ranked #2 in the media, #3 by the BCS.

Army, another Sun Belt Conference team, has had a miracle season (along with Navy and Ohio) going from unranked to #11 in the polls when they suffered their first loss against Air Force in week 11. They dropped only to #12 after the Air Force loss (1-point loss) and faced GSU the following week in which they loss again (blown out 49 - 13) dropping them to #16 in the polls. Army would go on to win the last 3 games of the regular season including a big time win over #2 Navy in the annual Army vs. Navy game. Prior to the Army vs. Navy game, Army got back into the top ten due to other teams in the top 25 dropping out, notably Ole Miss who was ranked #11 being completely dropped out of the poll after losing to Mississippi State in week 14.

GSU got the bid for the Sun Belt East division to play in the Conference Championship Game against Arkansas State since we went undefeated in the East division and only had one loss overall. GSU defeated Arkansas State in the championship game to claim their Sun Belt Conference Championship, however after the Championship Games were over and the polls were revealed the next week, Army had skyrocketed from #4 to #2 (with no more games to play after week 15) in the BCS polls while GSU dropped from #3 to #4. Army's record is 10 - 2 (7 - 1) while GSU record is 12 - 1 (9 - 0).

Now I'm not even upset my team got bypassed for the BCS National Championship game, I was expecting it to happen with Notre Dame and USC being the other 1-loss teams in the top 5 (Nebraska is #1 by the way) and their schools having more prestige, however Notre Dame dropped in the BCS polls (from #2 to #3) and USC didn't budge from their #5 spot despite defeating Oregon for the PAC-12 Championship.

So my question is when does a 2-loss team trump a 1-loss team when it comes to playing for the National Championship? In my opinion if it wasn't GSU, then it should have been Notre Dame against Nebraska. Army basically had an off week due to the Conference Championships and jumped 2 spots in the BCS polls because of it. The final BCS polls heading into Bowl Season are:

#1 Nebraska: 13 - 0 (10 - 0)
#2 Army: 10 - 2 (7 - 1)
#3 Notre Dame: 11 - 1
#4 Georgia State: 12 - 1 (9 - 0)
#5 USC: 12 - 1 (9 - 1)

Could this possibly be some kind of glitch/break in the game or is this how polls go in real life. As I do watch many college football games, I never really paid attention the polls in the past.

[FlyghtTime]

Yeah it probably is a glitch but it's unacceptable. Not only did you win their conference you also beat them head to head. Georgia State would definitely be ahead of them but ND or USC would be ahead of Georgia State. I've had a similar glitch where I led Tennessee to an undefeated season and beat UCLA in year 4 of my dynasty in the national championship. I was number 2 before the game but when I simmed to the end of bowl season I had actually DROPPED! The rankings were
1. UCLA 13-1 who lost in BCS title game.
2. Georgia Tech 13-1 who beat previous one loss Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.
3. Tennessee 14-0 BCS National Champions.
I was kinda put off by this and actually stopped playing this dynasty after I beat #1 UCLA in the first game of the next season. So yeah it's probably just a glitch but Army, Navy, and Georgia Tech seem to get a lot of love in this game.

[ksteward84]

That's no glitch, welcome to the BCS!

[FlyghtTime]

Quote: Originally Posted by ksteward84

That's no glitch, welcome to the BCS!

Good thing it's gone. Now if only the playoff was 8 teams.

[R1zzo23]

Use the editor to remedy the situation and run your own four-team playoff. It's a beautiful thing!

[Tha_Mac]

Quote: Originally Posted by rhs_rizzo

Use the editor to remedy the situation and run your own four-team playoff. It's a beautiful thing!

I've tried the dynasty editor but maybe I'm not equipped enuff to install it or maybe I don't comprehend it well enuff. But I wish I could use it.

[grabursock55]

Army may have lost their first 2 games then won out the rest of the season. The BCS isnt as much focused on how many losses, but when the losses occur. If you lose early, you can recover by the end. if you lose late in the season, even if its your first loss, you will fall in the rankings and not have time to make your way back to the top. Though, I dont know the situation you have

[thesportsguru11]

Quote: Originally Posted by FlyghtTime

Army, Navy, and Georgia Tech seem to get a lot of love in this game.

There is (or at least was.. this has never happened to me), a glitch where teams with option playbooks (that would be GT, Army, Navy, Air Force), were OP in dynasties. Change their playbooks to spread option or something similar to avoid this problem.