This means that this season, more emphasis is put on the strength of schedule, which the B.C.S. determines by calculating opponents' records as well as the records of opponents' opponents.
In 1988, George Bush senior went to Boston Harbour and attacked the environmental record of his opponent in that year's presidential race, Michael Dukakis: "My opponent has said that he will do for America what he has done for Massachusetts.
Mr. Bloomberg has spent $200 million trying to distort the record of his opponent, Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr.
In 1988, Republican consultant Lee Atwater helped elect George HW Bush to the presidency by plucking several seemingly minor things from the record of his opponent, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.
Mr. Obama has been studying the statements and record of his opponent — particularly on the Massachusetts health care law, a model for the national law — and is well on his way to becoming a student of Mr. Romney's positions.
In part, political operatives have reconstituted the vanguard of reliable Republican contributors who helped elect George W. Bush and support Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which attacked the Vietnam record of his opponent in 2004, Senator John Kerry.
Obama used his Las Vegas visit to tout what his Administration has done to raise student achievement, make college more affordable, and promote lifelong learning, as well as to hammer the education record of his opponent, Republican Mitt Romney.
And to not distort the record of your opponent.
He called Parker's comments the "same attack, different day" and "an attempt to change the subject and distract Hoosiers" from the record of Coats' opponent in November, U.S. Rep Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind.
(The combined record of those opponents is 13-31).
