Now, now, you're just bitter because we Yankees play better football.

Wow - it's interesting how you just gave the undefeated #1 team in the nation and the two-loss #10 team in the nation the same "top-ranked team" status.

Not to mention that all your conference championship means is "we didn't have to play Ohio State".

p.s. - who said that you were the best team in the nation, other than SEC press releases?  Check the ratings - it's the Pac-10 by a wide margin.  Maybe because our teams have put the beat-down on Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas; while the SEC has put the beat-down on...Cal?

Conference rankings: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc06.htm

(p.s. - you guys are in the national championship game)

I mean "who said you were the best conference in the nation"

Laudemus-- we'll see about that, now won't we?

dankster-- Auburn was #2 in the nation a week before we played them. And, well, now we do have to play Ohio State.

And yes, it is on blind faith alone that I believe the SEC is the nation's toughest conference.

We did also put the beat-down on FSU for the third time in a row-- two of those in Tallahassee; while they're not ranked this year they've ruled college football for three decades.

btw, laudemus, our coach Urban Meyer is a Yankee from northeast Ohio. He got his degree from Ohio State and was a coaching assistant there before moving on to Bowling Green.

Auburn was #2 in the nation a week before you played them...what the heck does that count for?  Notre Dame was #2 in the nation until the moment that Michigan played them (and beat them by something like 236 points).  So by your logic, Michigan's played two top-ranked teams and BEATEN one of them...not to mention being the only team to beat 11-1 Wisconsin, who's sitting at #5 in the nation right now.  I bet you could have scheduled Wisconsin...but Central Florida, Western Carolina, and Southern Mississippi were too tempting to pass up. :D

yeah, good thing we didn't have to contend with the likes of Central Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ball State, Indiana. Lucky break. Instead, we just got Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Florida State, Arkansas. Pushovers. We only played ten bowl teams, and beat a measly nine of them. Pathetic.

Wisconsin's 11-1 hasn't beat a ranked team all season. Michigan has beaten one ranked team. We've beaten three.

Did you know that Ohio State is 0-7 in bowl games against the SEC?

1) You are not allowed to evoke "names" just because you like the name of the team.  6-6 Alabama (who couldn't even beat Mississippi State) and 6-6 Florida State (who tied for 9th in the worst BCS conference in the nation) count for nothing - in the old rules, they wouldn't even have qualified for a bowl game.  If you use those weak standards, then Michigan can start talking about Purdue, Iowa, and Minnisota (who have all been top-15 teams in recent years and are bowl teams this year).  Michigan isn't even bragging about beating 8-4 Penn State.

2) You can't blame a team for beating the weak teams in its conference.  I didn't blame you for beating Vanderbilt.  They were in the schedule and you had to play them.  But you choose to play 3 ultra-weak teams out of conference.  When a .500 team is your shining star for non-conference wins...

3) Past years mean nothing at all.  Nothing.  We are talking about this year's teams, not Army or Miami.

It comes down to this.  You played 4 really quality teams, and went 3-1 against them.  All of the teams you played lost to other teams, and none of them are in the national championship picture.   Michigan played 3 really quality teams, and went 2-1 against them.  Those three teams were a combined 32-1 against everyone in the nation except Michigan, and their only loss was a 3-point defeat, on the road, to the team that's been a unanimous #1 virtually the entire season.  Both of the choices are fine.  I think Michigan is the better team, and Florida has a good case too.  But when you're willing to schedule three jokes in the non-conference...you're not "entitled" to anything.

1) You're doing cross-sectional and I'm doing longitudinal analysis. All I care about is my university and its history-- anything in the sports world that isn't related to Gator athletics past & present just isn't interesting. Alabama matters because of the way they abused us last year. Florida State matters because we've trounced Bobby Bowden three times in a row, twice in the field bearing his name.

2)If you can't blame a team for beating the weak teams in its conference, then Boise State should be facing the Buckeyes. Undefeated, and twelve wins just like Ohio State and us. Yes, 12-1 versus 11-1 doesn't mean a whole lot when that extra game was against Western Carolina, but even Western Carolina is infinitely tougher than nothing-- and Michigan took two bye weeks in a row while we battled the Seminoles and the Razorbacks. We've had one bye week since the season began, and that was back in October.

3)Past years are all that matter. I'm talking about history, 100 years of Florida football, and going back to the stadium twenty years from now to see 1996 & 2006 National Champions painted on the south end zone; adding Tim Tebow's name to Danny Wuerffel's and Steve Spurrier's as Heisman quarterbacks.

But of course nobody's entitled to nothing, and Michigan has a right to be fuming right now-- as do Wisconsin, Louisville and Boise State. We need playoffs.

... or do we? Couldn't one just dispense with polls and rankings altogether, and let fans be content with conference championships, undefeated seasons, bowl wins against rival conferences, and maybe even all three? Honestly... the game is all the way out in Arizona, and tickets cost $175. The real fun, though, is to pay ten bucks to sit at the front of the Swamp and cheer the team to victory against a major rival. When you're playing Florida State you don't care whether they're ranked #1 or unranked with five losses. What matters is that you're playing Florida State.

couple quick notes before agreement...

2) The logic doesn't follow here.  Yes, Boise State went undefeated in conference, but they also played no one better than Oregon State (who, granted, is a top 25 team) out of conference.  Ohio State at least beat Texas.  Michigan at least beat Notre Dame.  USC beat up Arkansas, Nebraska, and Notre Dame.  Who did Florida, LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, or anyone else in the SEC beat?  Each other?  (okay, at least Tennessee beat #20 Cal.  That's the only decent one.)

Also, Western Carolina is not infinitely tougher than nothing.  Looking across the history of title-contending teams, a top-ranked team has been beaten by nothing exactly 0 times.  A top-ranked team has also lost to a 2-9 IAA team exactly 0 times.  So the difficulty is about even.

But I will agree with one thing.  Either have a playoff, or go back to the old system.  A playoff that involved Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, USC, LSU, Louisville, and Boise State would not find a lot of complaints from anybody.  (okay, maybe it would, because I couldn't really figure out whether Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Auburn, or Arkansas deserved that final slot).   But just doing the old thing and having Ohio State meet USC in the Rose Bowl - what was wrong with that?

Which Pope Urban? I-VII?

Ha!

There's only one Pope Urban Meyer.