This is tiresome

Another day, another piece saying that Utah should be the national champion. Today Rick Reilly tries to argue it out. Some of his logic:

Just take a look at the teams that think they're worthy of being called national champs:

USC? Great year. Wonderful. Let's all go to SkyBar and celebrate. But it lost to Oregon State, a team Utah beat.

I can't stand the "team X beat team Y who beat team Z, ergo team X is better than team Z" line of reasoning for determining who is a better team. First, it too easily drops into circular logic like:
- Stanford beat Oregon State who beat USC who beat Stanford OR
- Penn State beat Oregon State who beat USC who beat Penn State

I also hate that type of logic because it completely disregards the importance of home field advantage in college football. At the beginning of every year you here about how some teams are unlikely to run the table of their conference and to support that argument they will list off their difficult road games. What was Utah's most difficult road game? Against Air Force. That was the only road game they played against a bowl bound opponent during the regular season. Florida played 2 such games (Vandy and Florida State), Texas beat Oklahoma on a neutral field and played 2 other difficult road games (Texas Tech and Kansas) and USC played 2 games of this nature as well (Oregon State and Utah).

Thirdly this type of logic negates how the game was won. Utah was aided by a dubious pass interference call on a tying 2pt conversion with 1 minute left. Due to the call they got a second shot and got in. If that one call doesn't happen then Utah loses and there goes their claim at being the best team in college football.

More Reilly:

So that's it. Utah is the national champion. The Utes should probably have two now, actually. They went undefeated in 2004, too, and their coach still thinks they were the best team in the land. Smart fella named Urban Meyer. Coaches Florida now.

This forgets that Utah wasn't the only undefeated team in 2004 as USC and Auburn also went undefeated.

Still more Reilly:

It was Utah's eighth straight bowl win, the nation's longest streak. Among the losers during that run? Let's see USC, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, and now the legendary Houndstooth Hats.

I see that the 2001 Las Vegas Bowl on this debate as the current players on both Utah were still in junior high.

Repeat after me: Utah isn't the #1 team in the nation.