Gary Danielson defends his drum beat for Florida during the SEC title game

Not to stir the pot, but when he says that Michigan is the only team among the one-loss contenders (and Boise, of course) that had a chance to play its way into the national championship game, he's absolutely right.

 

Which is apropos of nothing.

If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle.

 

That's nonsense. Each of the one loss teams could have played there way in by not losing.

 

I love that the school that owes its only national title to a rematch owes it's next shot at one to the popular feeling that people don't want to see another one...

The bowl system turns the greatest sport around into a complete joke...

 

Mizzou --

Exactly. And hell, I'm looking forward to watching Ohio State and Florida.

But any justification I have seen for the Gators leapfrogging Michigan on the last day of the season is logical mumbo-jumbo trying to avoid the actual argument -- which is always "I didn't want to see a rematch," or sometimes, "The SEC deserved to have a team in the championship game."

 

Again, does anyone with better recall remember if the system in 1996 was set up to pit two teams in a winner-take-all game for the championship? Did Florida and Florida State have equal shot at the title in that game, with no other team that was in another bowl in contention? In those days, there were two polls (AP and USA Today) that declared champions on opinion, not a BCS that declared the winner of a single game the champion. Wasn't there another team in another bowl that had a shot at winning one of the poll championships?

The nature of the rematch argument, and its context, has changed since 1996, I guess is my point.

 

No, it wasn't.

Because the Big Ten and Pac-10 refused to play nice with everybody else and insisted on playing footsie in the Rose Bowl regardless of what everybody else wanted.

That nonsense continued until 1998, which is why Michigan got to play Washington State instead of Nebraska after the 1997 season.

Anyway, at the end of the 1996 season, instead of having unbeaten Florida State play unbeaten Arizona State, the Sun Devils were locked into the Rose Bowl against Ohio State.

The "Bowl Alliance" was created to pit the available teams with the highest rankings against each other. That's as close to "winner take all" as they could get. With Arizona State unavailable and Nebraska having choked against Texas in the Big 12 title game, that left FSU and Florida.

 

Which is why I think the "Florida is hypocritical" argument isn't valid. Apples and oranges, as others have said.

 

Funny, I didn't realize Louisville, Wisconsin and Florida all played OSU this season. Man, what a schedule.

Seriously, the point Danielson was making is that of all the contenders, only Michigan had a shot on the field at Ohio State, which, the last time I checked, was annointed No. 1 sometime over the summer. As the No. 2 team, that was their chance to absolutely lock down a spot in the championship game. They came up three points short. As I said in another thread, because of the goofy system we have now, that's enough to knock you out of the picture. Stinks for the Wolverines, but that's the way it is.

I despise Florida as much as anyone on this board and don't relish the thought of seeing them cart off the trophy on Jan. 8., but given the system we have in place (which admittedly stinks), I think the voters got it right. Do I shudder at the thought of UF hoisting basketball and football trophies in the space of a year? More than you know. Did I also shudder at the thought of a Michigan/OSU rematch when I had no doubt that the Buckeyes -- who absolutely shredded the Michigan defense the first time -- would complete the sweep? Yeah, can't say I was looking forward to that either.

Perhaps we should say to heck with it and let this thing be decided the old-fashioned way: With all the coaches hunkering down in front of the TV and playing SUPER TECHMO BOWL! My advice to any coach hoping to win: Take Kansas City. With Christian Okoye and Barry Word in the backfield, you'll be unstoppable! ;D

 

Oh yeah?

I have a "G8TR H8TR" license plate . . . and still think the voters got it right.

 

You called my bluff. All I have is a "I'm a Gator Hater" sign in my office at work. Also have one of those silly scorecards you can buy after games from the only Cocktail Party I've actually seen Georgia win (2004).

I can only imagine the swollen egos that will result if the "Gay-turds" finish this thing off. They'll have to drop capacity by 20,000 at Alltel next October just to fit Urban's inflated opinion of himself through the door.

 

Quick threadjack here, but man, this is a GREAT night to have Willie Parker in fantasy league! ;D

Carry on.