re: Most suspect MNC champions of all time

Don't know about most suspect, but I know which team had the easiest path to the MNC, and it wasn't BYU in '84.

9/8 @ Georgia Tech (4-6-1) W 30-6
9/22 Baylor (8-4) W 45-0
9/29 @ Vanderbilt (1-10)W 66-3
10/6 Wichita State (1-10) W 38-0
10/13 @ Florida (0-10-1) W 40-0
10/20 Tennessee (7-5) W 27-17
10/27 Virginia Tech (5-6) W 31-7
11/3 Mississippi State (3-8) W 24-7
11/10 Louisiana State (7-5) W 3-0
11/17 Miami (Florida) (5-6) W 30-0
12/1 Auburn (8-3) W 25-18
1/1 Arkansas (10-2) W 24-9 (Sugar Bowl)

Only one team on regular season schedule ranked in the final polls. Not a single team on the regular season schedule with fewer than 3 losses, and only two with fewer than 5 losses. Almost certainly the only team in football history, at any level of competition, to face three 10-loss teams in the same season - on consecutive weeks, no less (and one of them a Division 1-AA school). Regular season opponents combined record of 50-73-2 (winning percentage of .403).