I believe if...

you have a loss against a team like that, one that there is no doubt you just had a bad day it should not be that big of a knock. I think last year really helped allot more than it hurt tho. That was some of the lowest ratings ever in a NC game. I didn't even consider watching it. I could be wrong, but I don't think it will ever happen again. Oklahoma St had something very important that Bama did not have, they won their conference. Now we finally have something we should never have, a National Champion, supposedly the best team in the nation, that did not win their conference. I also think allot of the conferences woke up finally last year to what is happening. But this is not expansion or anything complicated like that, its simple, you should win your conference to play for the NC. I think Oklahoma St could well have beat LSU also. Its a mental thing as much as anything and it certainly did seem as tho LSU took Bama for granted. Looking at it from an LSU sympathetic point of view, they should not have had to face Bama twice.

If you want certain teams to play twice, just get rid of divisions within the conference altogether and have the best two play at the end. Would solve allot of scheduling conflicts.