Champs Chomp In Glendale

Originally posted to AtlantaMagazine.com on January 9, 2007

My buddy O.C. and I watched the Florida Gators absolutely dismantle the Ohio State Buckeyes last night. It was ridiculous. Ohio State scored on the opening kick-off and then Florida took over. It wasn’t even a decent game. Even Pope High School could have blasted Ohio State out of the stadium last night.

I don’t have many friends among Gator-Nation – and the one’s that I do have were NOT in any sort of shape to comment on the game’s outcome this morning – so I have no idea what is going through their minds. Is Florida the best team in the nation? I don’t think one game can say that.

Let’s all remember how the Gators slid into this game. If Southern Cal beats UCLA this year (which they do nine times out of ten), then Florida doesn’t even play in this game. And let us not forget that if Louisville had properly handled their business in November against Rutgers then we would have had two undefeated teams in the Championship Game and the BCS would have been looking pretty good. Then, if the same outcome had taken place, would we have felt comfortable anointing Louisville as the best team in the land? I doubt it.

And no one is going to forget what Boise State did to Oklahoma anytime soon.

So after all that, this year’s bowl games may have only showed us one thing. Among the maybe ten to twelve teams that legitimately deserve a shot at winning the national title, they are all fairly equal. Sure, some teams are faster than others. Some have better passing attacks or running attacks than others. But if you put them all into a playoff system and ran it ten times, you might get ten different winners.

I’m not about to jump onto the Playoff Bandwagon but maybe it’s something that we should all start thinking about. I’m also not going to be calling the Florida Gators the “best team” in the nation but they did earn the right to be called National Champions.