Final Coaches Rankings in USA Today

It would be interesting to rank all of the losses that teams had and were still allowed to play for the national title. There have been a few blowout losses that were deemed forgivable, but they were always to really good teams.

Florida losing at home to a mediocre Ole Miss team is definitely an exception.

 

I just looked this up from talking on another thread, but that mediocre Ole Miss team finished 5-3 in the SEC and 9-4 overall, split close games at Alabama and LSU, and beat Mike Leach's best Texas Tech team in the Cotton Bowl to finish 14th in the rankings.

 

It was still a loss to an unranked team at home.

 

Which has nothing to do with anything.

 

Other than to note that the SEC has been slapping around college football for a good while now.

 

Unranked at the time, maybe. But if that's the standard, Alabama this year beat 12th-ranked Florida on the road.

 

LSU's OT loss to Kentucky in 2007 has got to be up there. Wildcats were 8-5 (3-5), and counted Kent State, Eastern Kentucky, and FAU among their 8 wins. Lost to every other good team they faced. Were blown out at home by Sly Croom.

 

Going way back, but '98 FSU's stomping by 7-5, MicronPC Bowl-bound NC State is another nomination.

 

My bad; thought it was the latest "Here's an indictment of other schools' talent!!!" meme.

Early part of the run had some serendipity.

In 2006, USC choked away its spot, handing Florida an opportunity to expose the Big Ten.
In 2007, LSU emerged from a screwed-up year in college football, and had the opportunity to expose the Big Ten champion.
In 2008, Florida was a juggernaut, period.
2009, 2010 and this year, the SEC schools needed no luck, no questions, to get into the title game.

It's up to the other conferences to do a better job breaking the rules step up.

 

Since 1998...

1998 - FSU (to unranked NC State)
1999 - None
2000 - Florida State (loss to No. 7 Miami)
2001 - Nebraska (to No. 14 Colorado)
2002 - None
2003 - LSU (to unranked Florida); Oklahoma (to No. 12 K-State)
2004 - None
2005 - None
2006 - Florida (to No. 12 Auburn)
2007 - LSU (to No. 18 UK, unranked Ark...); Ohio State (to Illinois)
2008 - Florida (at home to unranked Ole Miss)
2009 - None
2010 - None

 

Given what a total cluster Zook-era Florida was, that they went to Death Valley and beat a red hot LSU team by two scores still makes little sense.

'03 Florida beat both SEC Championship Game participants, and crapped the bed against everyone else.

 

2007 was probably the craziest college football season of most of our lives. They should not have awarded a title that year...