season everyone plays the "you don't play anyone" or "who do you play - Navy, Army, Air Force?" card. Then, by the end of the season, as you mention we end up playing a bunch of ranked teams or 10 bowl teams and everyone looks past it again.
Meanwhile Alabama and the rest of the SEC play 10 cupcakes (a bunch of Sunbelt and DII teams) and two real games and everyone talks about how hard their schedules are. It's tiring and ESPN has contributed to the blasphemy over the last decade.