quote:
I'd respect FSU's run, if they hadn't pussed out of joining the SEC. Bowden even said he didn't want to have to play the tougher competition. Avoiding elite teams drops them a few points.

While he certainly said that, I'm not so sure he already had it tougher. While the ACC was weak, playing Florida and Miami every season made his schedules on par with any SEC schedule. Especially when you consider they also often played other top tier OOC games

These are REGULAR SEASON games only (Final AP Rankings):

1987: #1 Miami, #7 Auburn, #8 Michigan State
1988: #2 Miami, #9 Clemson
1989: #1 Miami, #6 Auburn, #12 Clemson
1990: #3 Miami, #13 Florida
1991: #1 Miami, #6 Michigan, #7 Florida, #11 Syracuse, #23 BYU
1992: #3 Miami, #10 Florida, #17 NC State, #19 N. Carolina, #25 Wake Forest
1993: #2 Notre Dame, #5 Florida, #15 Miami, #19 N. Carolina, #23 Clemson
1994: #6 Miami, #7 Florida, #15 Virginia, #17 NC State
1995: #2 Florida, #16 Virginia, #20 Miami
1996: #1 Florida, #10 N. Carolina, #14 Miami
1997: #4 Florida, #6 N. Carolina, #25 Georgia Tech
1998: #5 Florida, #9 Georgia Tech, #11 Texas A&M, #18 Virginia, #20 Miami
1999: #12 Florida, #15 Miami, #20 Georgia Tech
2000: #2 Miami, #10 Florida, #16 Clemson, #17 Georgia Tech

That's 50 Top 25 opponents during a 14-year stretch...That's 26 Top 10 opponents during a 14-year streatch... all played during the regular season. That includes playing 4 National Champions during the regular season alone.

If you throw in bowl games, during this 14-year stretch, Florida State won the National Title twice.... but also played 7 games against opponents who won the National Title. And they played another 6 games against teams that either finished #2 in the polls or played in the National Title Game.

Another stat: From 1987-2000, Florida State played the SEC Champion 12 times. That's 12 SEC Champions on their schedule during just a 14-year period. Florida State was 7-4-1 in those games.

I would venture to say there isn't a single SEC program that played that many top tier teams... especially during the regular season... during that time period. And maybe even ever.

And after all that, Florida State finished in the Top 5 every single season during that stretch.

From a Championship perspective, it falls short of Bama's current run. But I do find Florida State's run from '87-'00 to be the more impressive run all together.