UGA- even if Smart went overly conservative at home, we played a very good team that may well make the playoff right down to the wire, and I think we only dropped 3-4 spots, much like the Bush Push game where even friends who hate ND came away impressed.

We are on a family friendly board, so I'll just leave the Michigan game as unacceptable. They were somehow picked over OSU in the preseason, yet ended up being thumped by Wisconsin and dominated by PSU (I think this is the one game Patterson looked like the hype) for much of the game before, and then crushed by OSU last week, so this is far from our losses to very good teams like Alabama '12 or Clemson '19.

Your analysis is dead-on IMO, and it also didn't help to have UF with close losses to LSU/UGA but a quality win over Auburn, Michigan rightfully leveraging their win over us until last week's loss, Penn State & Wisconsin IMO leveraging their common opponent in Michigan over us, Utah and Oregon going on late runs, and USC/Stanford not being quality wins for us.

I agree that the earlier the loss the better, but would not getting blown out at very last game of the year be just as bad if not worse?

That's what happened in 2006. Got our butts kicked in LA, bringing our resume to:

0-2 (both 20+ point losses, one at home) vs. elite teams
1-0 vs ranked teams (Penn State #25)
Come from behind wins vs MSU (4-8) and UCLA (7-5)
And whole lot of nothing else

I'd say that is a worse resume than this year by more than a hair including the freshest of impressions of final game blowout.

I don't disagree with your overall point. I just don't see how it serves to differentiate the seasons.

up throughout the year. I predicted with my nd friends that we'd be 10-2 and ranked around 9-11 at the end of the year because other teams would lose and we'd keep creeping back up. Instead we got sent way down the rankings and were about 2-3 spots from doing that climb. Michigan being a dog team didn't help much either because they were going to keep us below them.

The other argument with regards to equity is that in 2006 while it's probably a similar season, the bowl process was different and those big bowls could just grab ND and we'd get waxed but sell tickets. Now we're ending up slotted where we probably belong and I hope we blow out whatever Big12 team comes and tries to score against what I feel is a pretty darn good defense relatively in college football.

that's tough to prove either way; but, I object, no strenuously object, to the idea that we'd be sitting at #5 if we'd lost 28-24 or something.

gone into the tank and maybe lost to Indiana or MSU making that win yet another mediocre win but I still think we'd be sitting there at #5 hoping for a Georgia loss.