Passes and Picks

Still waiting on the BCS

After this weekend's games, we may finally have some BCS answers in the SEC as well as the rest of Div. I-A.

The Gators, currently ranked 11th in the BCS, have an outside shot of making the SEC championship game. To do that, the Gators need to jump Tennessee in the BCS standings, currently ranked eighth.

While that looks like it would take a Tennessee loss, it could happen without that occurrence. Florida first needs to beat Florida State on Saturday.

That would move Florida up at least one spot in the polls (as Florida State would drop) and could propel them ahead of Miami as well. This poll shift, combined with an increase in the Gators' strength of schedule and a decrease in the Volunteers', could just edge out Tennessee in the BCS.

Then, since Florida owns the win over Georgia and would most certainly be within five BCS spots, the Gators would get a bid to Atlanta. Or maybe Kentucky could just play the game of the season and beat Tennessee to make this simpler.

LSU is certainly rooting for that to happen. LSU, currently the third-ranked BCS team is looking for a spot in the national title game. If Georgia lands in the SEC championship game, beating them would most-likely drop them from the top ten and thus take away their quality win points.

Confused yet? Such is the way with the BCS.

This year could also be a very big cry for a playoff system in Div. I-A Michigan is one of the hottest teams in the nation and would arguably make for the best game against Oklahoma, but unfortunately has two early losses keeping them ranked behind LSU and USC.

Those two teams could also both end up with only one loss and yet only one would be able play for all the marbles. These two situations should at least have some effect on the BCS supporters. 

Florida-Florida State rivalry is one of the nation's best

In the spirit of "Rivalry Week" last week, ESPN.com's Page 2 asked its readers to vote on the "best traditional rivalry in college football."

The Florida-Georgia Game made it to the quarterfinals before being blown away by the Iron Bowl (Alabama-Auburn) nearly three to one. It's hard for me to see that, especially with Florida wrecking Georgia's national title hopes for two years running.

What I really don't understand, however, is how Florida-Florida State (PDF) was not a contender. Although Page 2 only allowed a school to be in one rivalry in the bracket, I believe the Gators-Noles game is much more of a rivalry than the Gators-Dawgs.

Since 1972, the series is dead even at 16-16-1 and the Seminoles hold the edge in the last nine meetings 5-4. The Gators own the series lead at 27-18-2.

Florida beat Florida State 52-20 in the 1997 Sugar Bowl after losing by to them by a point in the regular season, to win their only national championship. The Seminoles edged the third-ranked Gators 30-23 en route to their 1999 title.

Former Florida coach Steve Spurrier helped make the rivalry what it is today, saying FSU stood for "Free Shoes University" after a 1993 scandal involving a $6,000 shopping spree at Footlocker by Seminoles players.

FSU coach Bobby Bowden and Spurrier liven up the rivalry nearly every year with at least a week's worth of smack talk being traded in the media.

The rivalry spills off of the field as the basketball programs face off in the host town the night before the game.

While past generations of Gator fans may have been taught to say "to hell with Georgia," the Florida fans of today hate nothing more than the tomahawk chop and the obnoxious cop-out cheer, the war-chant.

Florida-Georgia may have once been a bigger rivalry than Florida-Florida State, but when you win 13 out of the last 14, it is difficult to call it a rivalry any more. It may be more of a tradition rivalry, but if you want to know how to make a Gator fan's blood boil, just mention the "Choke at Doak" game of 1994 when Florida blew a 28 point fourth quarter lead to tie 31-31.

The "Cocktail Party" isn't what it used to be, but luckily the Florida-Florida State match up has come to replace it as one of the game's best rivalries. We just don't have a corny name or random-item trophy to prove it. 

The blunder-ful BCS system

The Bowl Champion Series, a way of ranking teams to ultimately decide a national championship game, is one of the stupidest ideas in sports. It's right up there with the XFL and ties in the All-star game. Simply stated, the BCS sucks.

The BCS came about in 1998 as a way of solving the problem of voting for a national champion. While having sports writers vote for the top 25 through out the season may be alright, having them choose a national champion at the end of the year felt phony and led to several problems.

The title was split 19 times between 1950 and 1997, including three times in the 90s and twice between three different teams. There were controversies every year on location biases, strengths of schedules and such. How do you pick a champion from a bunch of teams that have probably not played each other. The obvious solution was to have a national championship game.

Enter the BCS. Using several computer rankings that figure in practically every factor in some strange way, the BCS ranks the teams and at the end of the year puts the #1 team against the #2 team in a bowl game that is rotated every year. Sound good?

Well its not. Picking the best two teams in the nation is even harder than picking the one best. While there may only be one undefeated team, there could be several one-loss teams from which the BCS has to pick a second place team, which looks to be the case this year.

Ohio State is currently ranked second over USC and LSU, when the Buckeyes look like the weakest one-loss team of the three. In 2000, Florida State played in the national championship over Miami, though they each had one loss and Miami had beaten Florida State.

The BCS is tweaked each year to try to solve for problems like that. Here's the real solution: playoffs.

Division III has them. Division II has them. Division IAA has them. So why not division IA?

A playoff field of eight teams would ensure that all teams with a legitimate shot at the national title would get to play for it. It would only extend the season by two games, and only for two teams. Bowls could still be used, but they would be "playoff bowls."

The playoff system would ensure an "undisputed" national champion, rather than a controversial one, as college football has had practically every year of the BCS system and before. 

Waiting Game

The Gators finished their SEC schedule Saturday with a 24-22 win over South Carolina. Now they just have to wait and hope.

Wait to see how Tennessee finishes its SEC schedule, and hope that it isn't with two wins. Tennessee routed Mississippi State 59-21 on Saturday and still have Kentucky and Vandy to play.

It would take a Volunteers loss or a fairly large miracle for the Gators to make the SEC championsip game, even though Florida will at worst finish in a tie for first place in the SEC East.

It doesn't look good for the Gators, as Kentucky and Vandy are the last two teams in the SEC East. Vandy hadn't won an SEC game in three years until Saturday when they beat Kentucky. And Kentucky lost to a team that hadn't beaten an SEC foe since 2000.

So the Gator Nation will wait and hope for Tennessee to lose. Florida fans will cheer for Kentucky and Vandy and the players will get ready for FSU. There's nothing left to do but wait. 

Holtz going the way of JoPa?

Joe Paterno, the 76-year old legendary Penn State coach, has been on the hot seat recently because his teams the last few years have been ailing.

But I worry about another aging coaching legend, South Carolina coach Lou Holtz. The 66-year-old who led Notre Dame to national championship in 1988 seems to be losing his edge.

After last week's 28-6 loss to Arkansas, the coach was asked if he saw a light at the end of the tunnel for his team that is 2-5 in the SEC this year. Holtz answered with a simple, "I sure do."

What?

Lou, what's happening? Are you feeling all right? Where is the coach we all know and love?

Holtz is famous for making ridiculous quotes when talking about his team, and its chances against upcoming opponents.

He once said the only chance South Carolina had of beating the Gators was if they started putting the Gators' points on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

He may have been right though. Under Holtz the Gamecocks have lost all four of the matchups with the Gators by a combined score of 143-48.

Those blowout have left little to talk about in the week preceding the South Carolina game in recent years, other than Holtz's comments.

Last year he said the game would be much closer "if they hadn't invented the forward pass."

In this week's press conference, when asked about this week's game with the Gators, Holtz simply said, "Mentally, I don't know how we will be. Young people bounce back and you have no other choice. We have never beaten Florida. They defeated Georgia, LSU and Arkansas this year and have won four in a row and five of their last six."

What kind of a quote is that?

Even earlier this year, Holtz was up to true form. Before the game with Tennessee he said, "It may be a better game if the (NFL's) Titans played them. Play for the championship of Tennessee. That'd be interesting."

Granted the week is still young and the 'ol coach has plenty of time to give me some fodder for my blog, but I hope he isn't slipping.

I'd hate for the bulletin board in the Gator locker room to be missing a good Holtz quote so the Gators could have something to keep them occupied this week. After all, Holtz never even promised to win. "The only thing I promise is we're not going to forfeit." 

The weekend that was

The Gators beat Vandy 35-17 on Saturday to make it four SEC wins in a row and now sit alone atop the SEC East. That's the good news.

The bad news is it probably won't be enough. Thanks to a new tie breaker, unanimously voted on by the SEC Athletic Directors, the team representing the SEC East in the championship game will likely be decided by the BCS standings.

That's no good for Florida. The BCS currently has Tennessee at #7, Georgia at #9 and Florida way back in #14.

The tie breaker puts the team with the highest ranking in the championship game, unless the second team is behind by five positions or less. In that case the winner of the head-to-head match goes on. That would currently leave Georgia as the SEC East champion since they beat Tennessee.

So how could Florida make it to the big game? A Tennessee loss seems to be the only thing. Tennessee only has SEC games left, meaning a loss would leave only Florida and Georgia tied, and Florida owns the head-to-head.

If Georgia loses another game, Tennessee will probably be the SEC champion as they beat Florida.

Confused yet? In a nutshell, the Gators are almost certainly relying on a Tennessee loss to Mississippi State, Vandy or Kentucky to be named SEC champs. Those three teams have a combined SEC record of 2-14, only having beaten one another.

So the view isn't so great from the top. Florida has played brilliantly the last four games, but it may not be enough. It just goes to prove in college football, every week counts. Florida may be playing better football better than any other team in the nation (save Oklahoma), but those early losses hurt. And they may hurt all the way back to the Outback Bowl. 

Coming home for homecoming

This is a true homecoming. The Gator football team hasn't played a home game since its disappointing loss to Ole Miss on September 4.

A month on the road can do a lot to a team, but it did a lot for this team. They've turned a disgusting 3-3 season around to a 6-3 season with a shot at the SEC championship.

So is this homecoming going to be good for the road warriors? After all the Gators are 2-2 at home and 4-1 away from the Swamp, with the only loss coming against Miami.

The answer is a definitive YES.

The fans are drooling with anticipation to see their renewed team back in Ben Hill Griffin. The players have got to be tired and ready to stay home for the weekend.

Now that the media has laid off Zook, he should even feel comfortable again at home. This should be one of the best homecomings ever, since never before have Gator fans welcomed home a team that beat three straight ranked opponents on the road.

Now the only thing to do this weekend is avoid a huge upset against Vandy. That shouldn't be too hard, but just look at the problems Virginia Tech and Georgia had against West Virginia and UAB respectively. The Hokies were whooped by the unranked Mountaineers and the 'Dawgs barely squeaked by against a horrid Dragon team.

The Gators should be gearing up for the final regular season game against third-ranked FSU on Thanksgiving weekend. They can't look past an easy opponent on the way to the big game like Virginia Tech and Georgia did.

Barring anything crazy, I'm ready for the homecoming to end all homecomings. Welcome home, boys. You've done us proud. 

A weekend in Jacksonville

I was one of the lucky few students who actually won the Georgia student ticket lottery. I was also one of the even fewer students who actually used the ticket rather than selling it for three times its price.

So I packed my bags, sleeping and otherwise, and headed north from G-ville, through the nation's worst speeding trap and on to J-ville.

I hit up the Landing for the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party on both Friday and Saturday nights. The party was more packed on Friday, but more fun on Saturday, because then we were celebrating a 16-13 Gator victory over the 'Dawgs that night.

It took a 66-yard drive capped by a 33-yard field goal, with 33 seconds left to do it, but Florida managed to beat Georgia for the 13th time in the last 14 games.

There are dozens of great story lines in this win: true freshman Chris Leak's game-winning drive, Florida's sweep of three top-15 SEC teams away from the Swamp to salvage the season and a possible three-way tie for first in the SEC East which seems almost inevitable now.

My favorite story in this victory is 13 out of 14. No matter how good Georgia is, and no matter how bad the Gators are, Florida seems to pull out the win.

Last year the 'Dawgs were making a nice bid for a national championship until they lost their only game of the season to the struggling Gators.

Georgia was once again in the hunt for a national championship this year until they hit the familiar road block. I don't know how it happens, but we always seem to beat Georgia.

Florida defensive end put it best when he said after the game, "We own Georgia." The fans chanted the same on the way out of Altell Stadium.

My favorite taunt after the game was to tell Georgia fans, "Thanks for coming, beat you again next year." And we probably will.