There's another piece to this, which is how the playoff works, as opposed to the week-to-week season, and bowl games more generally. Some coaches are definitely better than others at preparing for bowl games. And there's a difference between the three weeks between the conference championship games and the first playoff game, and the week between the semi-final and the finals. So Jim Tressel, as I recall (and my memory might be off--it often is) was pretty good at prepping teams for bowls. But he would have prepped OSU for the Georgia game, then, assuming a win, had a week to prep for Miami/USC. Very different situation. Same for Miami, of course. And, matchups matter, too. So I think the discussion around 1997 centered on what Nebraska and Michigan were good at (as well as Tennessee and...someone). I recall looking at those write-ups and thinking, "yeah, probably not Michigan."
And there's a difference between what got the team into the playoff, and what the playoff rewards. Getting into the playoff takes consistency every week (which is why people are questioning USC as an entrant in 2002), but winning the playoff means playing the best two games. Not the same as qualifying--as we used to discuss ad naseum before there was a playoff. In the English Premier League, the title is won based on the regular season effort (which is fine when all the teams play each other twice, one home and one away). The FA Cup that is played for at the same time is an elimination based playoff, and often has a different champion than the Premier League. It's a big deal to with the FA Cup, but it's not nearly as prestigious as the league crown. This playoff system we use is a hybrid, so rewards a little of both.
In hockey the regular season is just a prelude because what wins night after night for six months isn't the same as what wins in the playoffs. Baseball is similar; basketball not quite as much because the individual talent differences are more pronounced. Football is probably somewhere in between baseball and hockey on one side and basketball on the other for how playoffs differ from the regular season.
Anyhoo...I still think USC in 2002.