Is this the same excuse I'm supposed to believe when my Utah Utes completely facefucked Alabama in the Sugar Bowl after a lifetime of being told we could never compete with these "real" teams?
Reason =/= excuse. One is a rationalization of a (usually) failure, the other is a cause. Its a reality, thats what makes the bowls so hard to use as a yard stick of how good a team is. Yeah sure, your Utes on their best day, was able to beat Alabama 'XX on their worst or next to worst day. Its part of why there are so few repeat champions across any sports.
Not saying UCF wasnt better than Auburn last week, obviously they were. I'm saying you cant take a team that was on that trajectory, gut them, then expect them go to out and perform at peak for a game that GOING TO it is the reward. While telling the other team "you dont belong they think they are better blah blah blah". Yeah, they could play at the exact same level all the time, because athletes. But they dont, because humans.
Its the same damn thing I used to talk about when the SEC would go 7-1 in bowls. They would have #3 SEC teams vs #2 whatever conference (or 4 vs 5, etc) and when the SEC would win, you had to think "now how much did that other team care? How many seniors waiting for the draft? How good was the partying? Is there any fight left in them after missing the BCS bowls?". It works both ways. Hell, example UGA / BAMA this year, how much of the shit being said the past month do you think they used as motivation? The answer? All of it.
There are always going to be biases towards groups because some groups are more prone to doing better due to factors. Fuck me, what a hard concept.
The SEC just does well in football. Because reasons. This might be the last year, dunno, and not sure I care. Hell, I support removing athletics from all the SEC schools completely. So the argument on that might be a bit odd.
