can somone please tell me wtf usc leap froged the gators

Easy 8 team playoff

league champs from the big 6 conference plus two at large bid. Use exisiting bowls and we are done. If a team does not win their conference how can they make the claim that they are the best. This makes a conference championship important again.

I love this stuff. I actually quit buying any college shirts, hats etc. until some form of playoff is established. I also periodically email the NCAA and Slive with the SEC. The NCAA actually responded and said the conference presidents have to estiblish a playoff. The NCAA cannot do it unilaterally. I will continue to boycott and pester. Not spending money is the only bit of leverage we have.

It would be great if consumers united for their common good one day.

The conference presidents are afraid of losing and/or sharing their slice of the revenue pie. No matter what kind of lpayoff the fans come up with, or whatever reason we come up with, there are always suits and ties that say it can't be done. I would think that after the SEC team was left out in 04, the SEC president would be raising hell in favor of a playoff.

I have no explanation as to why we are ranked so high. It has been a mystery to me for the past several weeks.

Easy. You beat us(not hard this year, although you kind of struggled in the second half) and LSU, who struggled with big games until the Tennessee miracle(anyone who saw Early Doucet make that grab out of nowhere knows it was a miracle). I hate to say it, but you already know it: Arkansas is going to flat MURDER you in Atlanta unless you take this time to really formulate a gameplan.

The reason UF is ranked so high is because:

a) Sexiness. The rankers and pollsters and coaches and everyone want a return to the 10 years of glory under Spurrier. No matter how hated Spurrier is around the country(and he is hated, except in Gainesville and Columbia), the fact that he was able to win consistently in the toughest conference in the land makes him sexy. Florida emerged out of NOWHERE to become a dominant force on the landscape. You have only to look at the consistently high pre-season rankings of Miami and Florida State and Notre Dame every year to know that no one gets ranked based on performance; everyone gets ranked based on sex appeal and storyline.

b) Mr. Two-Years-and-Gone. Urban Meyer has success in his second year. That's just a given, right? Look what he did in Oxford, OH with Miami and at Utah in his second year. The theory is that he'll be able to do the same with the Gators in his second year in the swamp. No one told the pollsters that the spread option WILL not and NEVER HAS worked in the SEC. It's a gimmick offense, and in a league that prides itself on defense even as it produces offensive standouts like Herschel and Emmitt and Bo and Cadillac and the Mannings and the list goes on, eventually DCs are going to figure Urban out. And when that happens(likely next year), you're going to go straight back to the days of Zookery. I still find it amazing that it took Spurrier going to the NFL for folks to figure out the Fun 'N' Gun, which basically consists of having receivers who are faster than the corners guarding them and a QB who can count to four.

c) A win is a win. So what if you struggled with Vandy and a terrible Georgia team that had just come off a loss to...oh...right...Vandy...? A win is a win, right? And besides, we want the Gators to do well! Keep 'em ranked!

d) Honestly...you guys have the toughest schedule in the country on paper. I mean, come on: Auburn, LSU, Georgia, FSU(who are even worse than us this year...), Tennessee...who's going to argue with that schedule? On paper, that is.

e) You only have one loss. Don't sweat it. The number of one-loss teams is shrinking and shrinking. It still does mean something, especially in a year when Texas loses to K-State and USC loses to Oregon State and Georgia loses to Vandy and Kentucky and Louisville loses to Rutgers and Illinois wins two Big Ten games and Auburn loses to an unranked Georgia team that just lost to Vandy and Kentucky. It's a down year, a year when teams who shouldn't lose to bad teams lose to bad teams. You're one of the last one-lossers and a one-losser who lost to AUBURN.

No insults to Gator fans...I mean come on...you guys know this already, right?

There is a lot of wisdom in what you say in your last post, dapolla. I respectfully disagree on 2 things, though. The spread option offense.....try telling the UGA coaching staff that it doesn't work in the SEC, after West Virginia rolled up 502 yards of offense and 38 points against what was supposed to be a really good defense with a lot of speed. Tell the 10 opponents that the Gators have beaten this year that the spread option doesn't work. It will continue to work until defensive coodinators recruit enough speed on the ends and corners to be able to stop it. As far as the fun n gun....well it didnt work in the NFL because there is too much speed on the corners to cover the recievers. Besides, the NFL had already seen this offense under another name. It was the run and shoot, and it was a failure with the Falcons and with the old Oilers. I am still amazed that SEC defensive cooridinators never really figured out how to stop it. It was also a "gimmick" offense that made The Gators champion 6 times in the SEC, and 1 time as National Champs. Sometimes gimmicks do work.

Dapolla,
There maybe some truth in that I think Urban is high profile and he's getting some bonus points just because. As for the sexy thing? I travel a lot around the country and can tell you that most people outside of the southeast never even think about the Gators. I am sure that most of the country is saying, "huh?" when looking at their high ranking.
It also may be a ploy to hype the upcomming SEC Championship game which I am sure Arkansas will win easily. I am praying for a UGA vs. Auburn type surprise performance.
I also just learned that the Gators suspended the DE that blocked the kicks against the Cocks. That makes the 4th defensive starter that we have lost in the last three weeks. It does not look good for our deffense.

I too doubt whether the spread offense will work in the SEC. I also don't think that you can come close to comparing UF's spread offense next year with Tebow running it to WVU's spread offense to make your point. WVU's combo of White (QB) and Slaton (RB) cannot be matched by any team in the country with their speed. Tebow and UF's RB's can't even come close to executing the spread with the speed of White and Slaton, it's not even comparable (I know UF has Harvin). I will go as far as to predict that Tebow won't finish the season as long as Urban keeps running him as much as he has this year. He WILL get injured if they push his luck in the SEC. Tebow is a tough kid but with marginal, at best, speed. It would take a spread offense with the SPEED of WVU to come close to making it in the SEC and even then, I believe injuries would eventually result from the week after week pounding. Just my opinion though.