I wonder if the voting breakdown has anything to do with being a fan of a helmet vs non-helmet.
I understand my viewing lifetime has coincided with by far the best run Florida has ever had, but that being said, I do not want an environment in which Florida loses and I shrug my shoulders, knowing we're still in it for the NC. If you're a fan of a helmet (or elite team in your lifetime), you know that feeling of dread and angst on the rare occasion your team loses. If your team peaks at 7-5, you don't know this feeling. It's what made the college football regular season mean something. You knew that once you lost, you'd need some conspiracy theory stuff to happen bam-bam-bam for you to have any way back to the NC...and sometimes it happened!!
This is an interesting thought. I think my experience is similar to yours. I'm an Ohio State fan and alum who started at Ohio State in the fall of 1993. Prior to that I was a fan, but not anywhere near at this level. Part of that is because I hadn't gone there yet and part of it is because Ohio State wasn't all that good when I was in HS:
The Buckeyes almost won the NC in 1979 when I was a todler and that was followed by Earle Bruce's seven year run of three loss seasons. The team went 9-3 each year from 1980-1985 then 10-3 in 1986. Those were all good seasons but none were great. Then 1987-1992 was probably the worst six year stretch for the Buckeyes since WWII. Over those seven years when I was in Jr. High and High School the Buckeyes went 1-5-1 against the Wolverines and only once lost less than four games in a season.
From 1993-present the Buckeyes have easily the best overall record in the sport and just from recollection they have been in the NC discussion more often than not. I've always looked at CFB through that lens. I well know that, as you put it, "feeling of dread and angst on the rare occasion your team loses."
I also chuckled when I read your comment about knowing that once you lost, "you'd need some conspiracy theory stuff to happen bam-bam-bam for you to have any way back to the NC." I well remember, for example, after losing to MSU in 1998 looking at the next AP Poll and then looking at the schedules of all the teams ahead of the Buckeyes and figuring out the most plausible NC scenario for Ohio State:
- After the loss to MSU, Tennessee was #1 but still had a pretty good Arkansas and the SECCG
- KSU was #2 but to be honest I didn't really believe they were all that good and they hadn't played Nebraska yet
- UCLA was #3 but they still had USC and Miami
- Florida was #4 but they still had FSU and they probably couldn't win the SEC anyway because they had already lost to TN
- Florida State was #5 but they still had Florida
- aTm was #6 but they still had Mizzou, Texas, and the B12CG
- Ohio State was #7
With this newfangled BCS (1998 was the first year of the BCS) the Buckeyes didn't need them ALL to lose. Ohio State could get to the BCSCG as long as five of the six teams ahead of them lost. It almost happened:
- Tennessee won out* and went to the BCSCG
- KSU lost the B12CG to aTm
- UCLA lost to Miami
- Florida lost to FSU
- FSU won out and went to the BCSCG
- aTm lost to Texas
*Tennessee was the one that was oh-so-close. In the Arkansas game a week after Ohio State's loss to MSU the Volunteers looked to be absolutely done. It was time to stick a fork in them and the proverbial fat lady was warming up her voice and checking the mic and then Arkansas managed to find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.