[2006alum]

2. No limits on the number of times a team can be put into those slots. In 2015 IIRC we had late kickoffs (6pm Pacific or later) in at least half of our games. I think that contributed to both us not being in the CFP and McCaffrey getting jobbed out of the Voldemort Trophy

I guess I remain unconvinced of this. Is there East Coast media bias? Of course. But Pac-12 after dark games are the highest rated Pac-12 games, so having McCaffrey on actually probably helped him insofar as more people saw him play, unless you think Voldemort Trophy voters vote only based on reading news stories on Saturday evening about the best plays of the day. I can't possibly believe that. My view has been that our Voldemort runner-ups have generally had the bad luck of losing to players on teams that were the national champions that year: Ingram (Alabama) over Gerhart in 2009, Newton (Auburn) over Luck in 2010, Henry (Alabama) over McCaffrey in 2015.

The two exceptions were RGIII over Luck in 2011 and Mayfield over Love in 2017. And Mayfield led his team to the CFP and lost in the semifinals in 2x overtime. So in all cases exception Baylor in 2011, our guy lost to a player and team with way more national exposure due to their team being better. It's really hard to win the Voldemort if your team isn't in contention for at least a NY6 Bowl, which we weren't with Love last year - we were a 4-loss team with only two top-25 wins (Washington and the Domers) when Love came in runner-up. Oklahoma had beaten Ohio State, Oklahoma State, and TCU twice. 

I continue to believe that until our "product" on the field (and basketball court) improves, our primary weakness is that other conferences can plop an asterisk by any exceptional performances from our guys.

[2006alum]

2. No limits on the number of times a team can be put into those slots. In 2015 IIRC we had late kickoffs (6pm Pacific or later) in at least half of our games. I think that contributed to both us not being in the CFP and McCaffrey getting jobbed out of the Voldemort Trophy

I guess I remain unconvinced of this. Is there East Coast media bias? Of course. But Pac-12 after dark games are the highest rated Pac-12 games, so having McCaffrey on actually probably helped him insofar as more people saw him play, unless you think Voldemort Trophy voters vote only based on reading news stories on Saturday evening about the best plays of the day. I can't possibly believe that. My view has been that our Voldemort runner-ups have generally had the bad luck of losing to players on teams that were the national champions that year: Ingram (Alabama) over Gerhart in 2009, Newton (Auburn) over Luck in 2010, Henry (Alabama) over McCaffrey in 2015.

The two exceptions were RGIII over Luck in 2011 and Mayfield over Love in 2017. And Mayfield led his team to the CFP and lost in the semifinals in 2x overtime. So in all cases exception Baylor in 2011, our guy lost to a player and team with way more national exposure due to their team being better. It's really hard to win the Voldemort if your team isn't in contention for at least a NY6 Bowl, which we weren't with Love last year - we were a 4-loss team with only two top-25 wins (Washington and the Domers) when Love came in runner-up. Oklahoma had beaten Ohio State, Oklahoma State, and TCU twice. 

I continue to believe that until our "product" on the field (and basketball court) improves, our primary weakness is that other conferences can plop an asterisk by any exceptional performances from our guys.