re: Tulane won the college football national championship in 1998.

("You can’t beat who you don’t play. Tulane in 1998 beat everyone they played. I would have liked our chances against Tennessee but as you may recall this was the first year under BCS rules for the bowls so we didn’t get that matchup and just like BYU a few years earlier we weren’t going to be named number one in all the polls.")

Sorry but strength of schedule matters. There were probably 20 teams that would have gone undefeated with Tulane's schedule that year. Maybe more. There comes a point when your schedule is just so weak that it removes you from any serious consideration. They played no ranked teams and the best team they did play in the regular season was a Rutgers team that finished 6th in the Big East.