Big Ten backer doing the Gator Chomp

I was pleasantly surprised while watching ESPN's College Gameday this morning. Kirk Herbstreit actually picked the Florida Gators to beat LSU.

I have nothing against Herbie, Lee Corso, and the "sane" guy who runs the show, but none of them have ever been Gator fans. Herbie always picks the Big Ten, and Lee is a Seminole nut.

So, Herbie's upset special is the Gators knocking off the #1 team in the country. If the Gators can pull it off, they will be right back in the National Championship picture.

I am pulling for the Gators to run the table, and for Auburn to win their side of the SEC. Then we can get revenge on the Tigers in the SEC Championship, before beating USC (or South Florida???) for the National Championship.

Gators avoid upset, beat the Rebels

The Florida Gators avoided an upset Saturday, beating Mississippi 30-24. Tim Tebow, aka Superman, passed for 262 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 164 yards and two more touchdowns. Percy Harvin, aka The Flash, had 123 yards receiving and one touchdown.

The game against Ole Miss was Florida's first road game of the season. The Gators need to work on their road game preparations. They host Auburn next week, then they play four of their next five games on the road (at LSU, Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina).

The Florida Gators are the best team in the country

One thing was apparent to me after watching the Florida Gators 59-20 victory over the Tennessee Volunteers: the Gators are the best team in the country. The Gators are practically unstoppable on offense and their bend-but-don't-break defense has a lot of young playmakers.

On offense, QB Tim Tebow has shown that his passing skills are just as good as his running skills. He has thrown for 835 yards and eight touchdowns in the first three games of the season.

As good as Tebow has been, the real star of the Florida offense is sophomore WR Percy Harvin. Harvin is a threat to go the distance every time he touches the ball. Coach Urban Meyer does a great job of finding ways to get the ball to this young star. Harvin had 195 yards rushing and receiving against the Vols.

Not to be overlooked on offense are WRs Cornelius Ingram, Riley Cooper, Jarred Fayson and Andre Caldwell, who missed the Tennessee game with a knee injury. RB/Returner Brandon Jacobs is another scoring threat and usually sets the Gators' offense up with good field position.

The Gators defense is not too bad either. The three players that jump out to me are DE Derrick Harvey, LB Brandon Spikes, and S Tony Joiner. The Gators defense is loaded with freshmen and sophomore players who will make a name for themselves as the season comes along. Watch out for guys like DBs Markihe Anderson, Jerimy Finch, and Major Wright.

The one concern about the Gators' defense is the lack of a significant pass rush. The Gators lost four defensive linemen to the NFL, and the guys in the middle have yet to step up. To the Gators' credit, the defense bends, but rarely breaks. The Gators allowed the Vols to gain 298 yards of total offense, but forced three turnovers and only allowed the Vols' offense to score 13 points.

It is still too early to crown a national champion, but the Gators are right there with USC, LSU, and Oklahoma in the discussion. The Gators will have to travel to LSU on October 6th. If they can get the victory there, and possibly again in the SEC Championship game, then they should be playing for a repeat championship in January.

LSU, I am not a believer

OK, so it was a foregone conclusion that LSU would beat Mississippi State Thursday night. The final score was outrageous. But don't start hollering to me that LSU is the top dog. Miss State's defense put up a hell of a fight in the first half. They shut Mr. "JaMarcus Russell's replacement" down, along with the rest of LSU's offense. But frankly, when your QB throws four interceptions in the first half, it doesn't matter how well your defense is playing.

LSU showed that they have depth. Lots of it. And that is great. But the second string ain't seeing time against Florida, Arkansas, Virginia Tech or Auburn this season. While the Bulldogs of Mississippi State put up a fight in the first half, these four big dogs will bring it for four quarters. Show me you can stand up to them and I will believe.

The TSN/SI/ESPN Preseason Top 25

Over the last week, I have received in the mail the college football preview issues from ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and the Sporting News.

Each magazine does a fine job of pointing out what to look for this upcoming season. My only complaint is the complete lack of imagination in their team rankings. USC is the unanimous #1, and LSU the unanimous #2. I guess if the "experts" all agree, then it is going to happen (just like last year's BCS championship).

I have condensed each magazine's rankings into one Top 25. I used the same method that the AP and coaches polls use (25 points for 1st place, 24 for 2nd, etc). ESPN only released a Top 16, so the bottom of the Top 25 is mainly the opinions of the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated.

		TSN	SI	ESPN	Total
1	USC	1	1	1	75
2	LSU	2	2	2	72
3	West Virginia	4	4	4	66
4	Michigan	3	6	5	64
5	Florida	5	3	8	62
6	Texas	6	8	3	61
7	Virgina Tech	7	7	7	57
8	Louisville	9	5	9	55
9	Oklahoma	13	9	6	50
10	Wisconsin	8	10	10	50
11	Ohio St	17	11	12	38
12	Penn St	15	14	13	36
13	Georgia	14	19	11	34
14	Cal	12	20	14	32
15	Auburn	16	16	16	30
16	FSU	11	NR	15	26
17	Rutgers	19	12	NR	21
18	UCLA	10	22	NR	20
19	Tennessee	18	17	NR	17
20	Arkansas	NR	13	NR	13
21	Boise St	NR	15	NR	11
22	Nebraska	23	18	NR	11
23	TCU	20	23	NR	9
24	Hawaii	22	24	NR	6
25	USF	21	25	NR	6

The Only Accurate Preseason Top 25

Lets face it, a preseason college football Top 25 is ridiculous. No games have been played. At this time of year it is all about reputation and appearances. Voting should not be done until after at least four or five games have been played.

Teams like TCU are punished for their low early ranking, while a team like USC will be rewarded. What happens if USC, ranked #1 in the newly-released Coaches' Poll, loses one out of their first five games while TCU, ranked #22, wins their first five? Lets say USC loses to Nebraska and beats Idaho, Washington St, Washington, and Stanford. TCU's first five games are against Baylor, Texas, Air Force, SMU, and Colorado St. Chances are USC will still be ranked higher than TCU based on where the teams started the season. I would argue that TCU's five victories (especially the one over Texas) would make them a more impressive team than USC.

My general disdain for preseason poll's aside, I feel compelled to release my own College Football Preseason Top 25. I think it is the most accurate one you will find anywhere.

God Loves The Gators Preseason College Football Top 25
1. (TIE) Florida, USC, LSU, Michigan, West Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma
According to Bodog.com, these seven teams have the best odds to win it all. On paper they definitely look like the best teams in the country. Florida and LSU play each other this season, as does Texas and Oklahoma. USC, which starts the season #1, is trying to go wire-to-wire. Ohio State proved last season how hard that is to do.

8. (TIE) Everyone else.
Well maybe not everyone else. Even I can't make a case for a team from the Sun Belt, at least half of the teams in the MAC, Conference USA, WAC, and Mountain West, Stanford, or Duke. But you get my point. Let the kids on the field determine who the best team is. Of course that would probably require a playoff, huh?

College Football Playoffs Coming In 2011?

According to a report by Lenn Robbins of the New York Post, we could see a four team playoff system in Division IA college football by 2011. The full article can be read here: A Football Final Four.

Robbins reports that the playoff would seed the top four teams (most likely using something like the current BCS), with the winners playing in a newly created bowl game for the national championship. This idea has floated around for a few years under the "Plus-1" moniker.

I am a big proponent of a playoff system in college football. I favor an eight team playoff, but I think a four team one would work just as well. Any type of playoff system is definitely favorable over the old and busted BCS.

If this system was in place last season, the match-ups using the BCS formula would have been: #1 Ohio State vs #4 LSU and #2 Florida vs #3 Michigan.

Would the results have been any different? In theory, less time would have elapsed between the Buckeye's season ending victory over Michigan and the final game against Florida (50+ days). Certainly too much time off was a factor in their performance against the Gators.

It would be erroneous to assume that Michigan's poor performance in the Rose Bowl loss to USC would have translated over to the playoff game against Florida. Michigan was demoralized after being passed over for the BCS game, and therefore did not play their "A" game against a Trojan team looking to prove that their season ending loss to rival UCLA was an aberration.

Florida definitely played with a chip on their shoulder in the BCS title game. Would they have played with the same intensity under the four team format?

It would also be a mistake to overlook LSU. The Tigers won their last six games of the regular season and demolished Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. They had similar team speed (specifically on defense) as the Gators did and would have matched up well against the Buckeyes.

My complete and unbiased view: Ohio State wins a tight one against LSU, and Florida struggles early against Michigan before pulling away at the end. The Gators would then go on to beat the Buckeyes in what I believe would have been a closer, more exciting national championship game.

The timing of this report is great, as I was just about to write an article on how to revolutionize college football's postseason. That article should be up sometime this week.