A Parody of Parity

This is another reason I favor the inclusion of all conference champions in a playoff--not just as a charity gesture to schools with far inferior budgets, but a more universal playoff is one of the ways, outside of outright sharing like the NFL, that can "redistribute the wealth" in at least a minimal way. Over time, the exposure of the non-BCS conference teams would increase (more TV, more revenue, potential home playoff game, etc might follow), I would guess, and there would be a little more incentive for better players going to non-BCS schools if the opportunity for playoffs was at hand (also increasing competitiveness, exposure, excitement, revenue, etc). Also, a playoff structure that I would support would automatically share revenue with all conferences, in a similar fashion to how BCS conferences all make money off the current BCS system, and all SEC schools/teams make money off the SEC championship game.

Prediction

Florida 45, Vandy 6

How The West Will Be Won

Based on this site's poll, I can see that I am in the minority--I voted for LSU to win the West. It looks like I might be wrong, and I hope I am. I want Alabama to be undefeated when they play the Gators in Atlanta, which would help Florida (with a win there) in the rankings. I must admit, though, that I still think LSU will beat Alabama tomorrow. After that, the Tide will play Miss St and Auburn at home--after tomorrow's game I will have a better idea of what I think will happen in those games. Either a 1 or 0 loss Alabama, or a 2 loss LSU will be in Atlanta, I think any of those scenarios still present a good situation for the Gators beating a quality team and reaching a top 2 spot in the BCS, especially given the likely continued bloodshed in the Big 12 and the weakness of the PAC 10 (leaving USC short) and Big 10 (and if the Big 10 isn't that weak, then we should expect Iowa, Iowa St, or Mich St to upset Penn St anyway).

78% Masculine

Ode to the Gators is comfortable with both its masculinity and femininity.

Trap game?

I don't know that I would call our next game against Vanderbilt a trap games because the next big rivalry game is not until we play Florida State at the end of the month. But fans we certainly shouldn't be looking past these Commodores. Certainly we cannot be expected to generate the same excitement in our household for playing the Commodores as we did for the hated Dawgs. But the way I see it, the Commodores pose the same challenge as Miami did earlier in the year, and I know how you all felt for that game. Vandy, like Miami has a great defense. In fact there defense is more battle tested and mature than Miami's. If we go into this game flat and don't execute on offense, we could allow Vandy to hang around and possibly steal one. Vandy beat Ole Miss and South Carolina and even with several key players out on defense only lost by 10 to Georgia. However, if we execute, Vandy's lack of offense could lead to the Gators' offense being on the field for a long time and we know what that will mean: John Brantley throwing TDs in the fourth.

More From Luke and Skip

Mike McCall

This was over a year ago, but it never gets old.

Fulmer's Last Great Win?

SI's Staples on Fulmer:

"In fact, Fulmer's last great win came Dec. 1, 2001, when he took his team to Gainesville to play a game postponed by the Sept. 11 attacks. In the locker room before kickoff, Fulmer told his players about captaining the 1971 Tennessee team that went 99 yards to beat the Gators in Gainesville. Tennessee was about to play the team Steve Spurrier considered his most talented ever at Florida. No one gave the Vols a chance -- except Fulmer. "Those guys put their jocks on just like you do," Fulmer said. "Those guys like the same girls that you guys like. Everything's the same. It gets back down to who wants to win it the most."

Fordism

Maybe Pat Forde could take the Coaches Poll to court for violating the 8th Amendment. I've been thinking for awhile that the Coaches Poll is terrible. The AP is far superior, but no longer affects the BCS (and don't worry, the AP had Florida at 2 after the 2006 SEC Championship game just like the Coaches). In 2003, there seemed to be almost more praise given to USC, the AP Champs, over the BCS Champs, LSU.

Forde also takes stock of potential upsets and counts Florida amongst the potential victims:

"What if Bobby Bowden's final home game becomes his first victory over Urban Meyer, taking the Gators out of the national-championship hunt? Chances of a Florida State upset: 33 percent."

Also by Forde:

Grind-Your-Heel Guys

A quartet of coaches who aren't in it to make friends with their opponents, and sure don't mind making a few enemies:

Urban Meyer is no stranger to adding insult to injury.

Urban Meyer (24), Florida. Calling two timeouts in the final minute of a 39-point win against Georgia? Pure payback for the 70-man end-zone celebration of 2007. But that's not all -- don't forget Meyer ordered up a field goal with 25 seconds left while beating Miami by 20 in September.

Steve Spurrier (26), South Carolina. Nobody has stuck the needle into opponents with greater frequency or more painful precision than the Head Ball Coach, who has run it up and laughed about it afterward. He hasn't had many opportunities to make jokes at the losers' expense with the Gamecocks, but Spurrier got in his shot the day after they whipped Tennessee 27-6 last weekend, kicking Smokey while he was down: "The Tennessee band was there last night, weren't they?" Spurrier asked, according to The (Columbia, S.C.) State. "I'm used to hearing 'Rocky Top' about 10 times. Did they play it at all? I can't remember any of it. Usually you hear that song, maybe they only play it after they score, I don't know. Their crowd was very quiet last night."

And The Grinded, Forde on Fulmer:

"Fulmer was outwitted by Steve Spurrier early, and by Urban Meyer and Mark Richt late. Tubby was eclipsed by Billy Donovan."

Finally, joining President-Elect Obama and Trojan-in-Chief Carroll, Forde offers his would-be 8-Team playoff scenario at this juncture:

It's Time For A Change

No less a voice than Barack Obama's called on Monday night for a playoff in college football. To which The Dash says hallelujah, it's time for some pressure on the ossified system from the top down.

The first round of The Dash's eight-team playoff would shape up as follows today:

Top seed and SEC champion Alabama (2) versus eighth-seeded ACC titlist North Carolina (3) in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The backstory would make this interesting, since the Crimson Tide were interested in current Tar Heels coach Butch Davis as far back as 2000, when he was the coach at Miami. That was before Mike Price, before Dennis Franchione and before Mike Shula. Then Bama got it right -- royal-flush right -- with Nick Saban.

Second seed and Big Ten champion Penn State (4) versus seventh-seeded Big East winner West Virginia (5) in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando. Just for fun they could award the old Lambert Trophy for the best school in the East to the winner.

Third seed and Big 12 champion Texas Tech (6) versus sixth-seeded Pacific-10 champ USC (7) in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Would anyone enjoy seeing the Red Raiders' O (first nationally in passing offense, second in total offense, third in scoring) against the Trojans' D (first nationally in pass defense, first in total defense, first in scoring defense)?

Fourth seed at-large selection Texas (8) versus fifth seed at-large selection Florida (9) in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow on the same field might be a little fun.

(Dash apologies to Oklahoma and Utah for being the best teams left out. Y'all can console each other in, say, the Alamo Bowl.)

After that: semifinals at the Orange and Fiesta Bowls. National title in the Rose Bowl. Championship trophy presented by Dashette Irina Shayk (10).

Decide for yourself whether that playoff would generate any interest. After you've thought it over for five seconds, call the president of your favorite university and scream into the phone that you want a playoff. Do not stop screaming until you are out of breath or they have hung up on you -- and then redial and scream again.

Maybe it will come to pass by the time Tebow's kids are in college.

Or maybe it happens a little faster depending on Tuesday's election results.

Spurrier Votes "NO" On Rocky Top

"The 63-year-old Spurrier, who grew up in Tennessee rooting for the Vols, had great success during the 1990s while coaching Florida against Fulmer's Vols. He once roiled Fulmer when he said 'You can't spell Citrus without UT,' a reference to Florida's SEC dominance that left Tennessee with a lower-tier bowl appearance.

Maybe five years ago I would've [been interested in the Tennessee job], but it wasn't open five years ago,' Spurrier told The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C. 'I'm at my last gig right here [at South Carolina]. And we've got a pretty good team if we can get a little offense going.'

No More Mr. Softie

Behind the 8

Obama!!! and Carroll endorse 8-team playoff.

Rickerson Off The Team

Spiked

Leach

“Here’s a guy that can talk to you about the European Union and Howard Stern in one conversation. He’s that diverse.”

It's easy to root for Tech, because of Leach (and this, this, and this) and their style of play, except when they take away a BCS title slot from the Gators.

After Meyer called a timeout

Haden

Joe Haden was on ESPN's First Take today. They said Meyer called his interception the play of the game. I'd have to agree. He also had 10 tackles.

Fulmer Out

As more teams get added to the list that Tenn, Wash, and Clemson have so far joined-the Head Coach vacancy list, Gators will get increasingly nervous wondering about the future of Charlie Strong and Dan Mullen.

It was more than just Spurrier that did this to Fulmer, but I do remember Fulmer not being thrilled (respectfully) at the prospect of the Spur-dog returning to the SEC East (in 2005).
As we saw more and more top notch coaches joining the SEC (high paid coaches that in many cases have even won National Titles and/or coached in the NFL or at least have won elsewhere at lesser schools), and as we saw Vandy and Kentucky and Miss St get more consistently competitive, something was going to have to give...in other words, with all 12 teams having realistic expectations to seriously compete each week, there would necessarilly be some big disappointments--there are not enough wins available for LSU, Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee to all have close to the success they expect each year--and the other 5 are far from pushovers.

Even given all this, Tenn is a good coaching job. Along with good pay, a nice stadium, fan support, lots of TV and a high profile schedule, there are also good players, including a highly ranked recruiting class coming in. And even though the new coach will be following a good coach who won a title and some SECs, there is still room for plenty of improvement.

My Hope

In a perfect world Penn State will go undefeated and the Gators end up number 2 in the BCS. I think playing Penn State in the Orange Bowl would be a cake walk, and Jo Pa will be about 5 or 6 games in front of Bobby, and Bobby may not be able to catch him anytime soon.

I could not resist this one

I just heard that Michael Vick had the Florida/Georgia game turned off at his prison on Saturday, because even he could not stand to see a "DOG" get beat that bad.

Big 12 vs SEC

If Penn State does get into the BCS title game (avoiding this), and there is an impressive SEC or Big 12 champ that wins their bowl game against a good opponent and finishes with 1 loss but does not get into the title game, we could be looking at an AP champ that is distinct from the BCS champ (a 1 loss USC team might also be an option in this, but not very likely given their low schedule strength and they don't have a conf championship game, but they may play the role of being the team that a potential AP-only champ beats in their bowl game--except that they will get a rematch with Ohio State because the Rose Bowl and BCS are lame, and the BCS does not want a really high profile matchup whose winner might challenge the legitimacy of their BCS champion). This last happened (split champions), of course, to USC and LSU in '03. Recently, but before the current BCS setup, Washington and Miami shared in '91 and Michigan and Nebraska shared in '97. The good thing, for whatever teams could be involved in such a scenario, is that no ones seems to begrudge the accomplishments of co-champions. The bad thing about this scenario, for 8 and 16-team playoff advocates, is that it makes everyone think a plus-1 formula will make everything better--still, anything that questions the legitimacy of the current system, any confusion or controversy, and any move towards playoffs, even a 4-team version, means progress. It will not happen all at once anyway.

Rexy

Grossman came in and helped the Bears come back and win. Orton is supposed to be out at least a month with an ankle sprain, so Grossman should get some starts. It's ironic that Grossman has played some musical chairs at QB in Chicago, a place not known for QBs, but at Florida, playing for a place popular for QBs, and for a coach notorious for QB shuffling, he locked in the starter role pretty solid at a certain point in 2000 and kept it for over 2 years.

"Grossman could not get in and out of plays. He could not check — all he knew how to check to was the bomb.”