Yup, you make some good points, though I think the Orangemen were a good bit better than WVU that year given their records and the fact that Syracuse beat WVU solidly in Morgantown. And I was mistaken, the Houston team wasn't bad. So we didn't lose to any bad teams and only really beat terrible teams (plus BC amidst the cheating scandal).
In 96 we played one truly elite team (OSU) and we will do the same next week at Clemson. I assume we lose to Clemson, though anything is possible and it will hopefully remain somewhat competitive. So I'll judge 96 vs 16 on the next 5 down where we were 0-5 in 96 (WVU, Syracuse, V Tech, Notre Dame, Miami) and 1-4 in 16 (PSU, Ok St, North Carolina, V Tech, Miami). Those five are actually pretty comparable when you look at end of season rankings in 96 vs the fact that four of the five this year are currently top 20 teams in the AP poll. I think 96 WVU and 16 Miami are comparable if Miami takes care of business with their easy remaining games and finishes 8-4. Of those five in 96, V Tech was the only non-blowout where in 16 the only game that wasn't close was against Miami and even then it was close until the 4th.
I spent too much time looking all of that up but I still feel like the 16 team is light years ahead of where we were in 96.
