Trying to argue that TCU proved anything with its Rose Bowl win is akin to declaring that Lindsay Lohan is a changed woman because she's tweeting about Gandhi in the New Year.

What exactly did the Horned Frogs do in Pasadena? They beat an inferior team from a lackluster conference with true grit. Exactly what they've been doing all season. Sorry, but that still doesn't make a squad national championship worthy.

The truth is these roses reek. If Wisconsin — a team from the Big Ten — is the biggest notch on your belt, your schedule turned out to be weaker than a well drink. It's not TCU's fault of course that the Big Ten stinks (University of Houston football should look Midwest for the next fake "beef up" of its schedule). But that doesn't change the reality. If anything the Horned Frogs should be punished for allowing a Big Ten team to come within a knocked-down, two-point conversion pass of tying them.

Forget about moving up into the top two of the final rankings, let alone having a legit case for the national championship. The Horned Frogs might need to be dropped behind Stanford or even Alabama in the last poll. Sometimes 13-0 says less than you think.

Do you truly believe that the three-loss Crimson Tide couldn't wipe TCU off the field? While the Horned Frogs fought tooth and nail with Wisconsin, Nick Saban's Alabama team absolutely annihilated Michigan State 49-7 in a game in which Saban clearly held back from drumming one of his old schools even worse. That's the same Michigan State team that beat Wisconsin by 10 points.

TCU still hasn't proven anything, still hasn't beat anyone.

It'd be great if there was a legitimate college football playoff system to give the Horned Frogs that chance in the postseason, but there isn't. And under this system, there's no way you can even mention TCU in the same breath with Auburn or Oregon. Or several other schools from the SEC or Pac-10.

Even if it's tough to admit.

"Today," TCU coach Gary Patterson said in his postgame press conference," proved we had just as good players as anybody in the country."

No, you only showed you have a fewer better players than a Big Ten team? And what exactly does that say?

Sorry. The Big Ten's blunder showing seals TCU's fate as perfect also rans. Michigan suffered its worst bowl loss ever — to Mississippi State. It turns out Denard Robinson doesn't look so fast when he's playing against a non-Big Ten team. Texas Tech — a pretty mediocre Big 12 team — blew out Northwestern for most of an afternoon, before remembering its Texas Tech and making the final score close. Florida had little trouble with Penn State.

It's hard to go 0-5 on New Year's Day, but the Big Ten did it with ease. Except for the game it almost won against TCU.

The Big-East bound Horned Frogs lost even as they won those roses. To pretend otherwise does reality a disservice.