And for the last time this year. The rest of the season is a mere formality. UF will win out the rest of the way.
I believe that UF is the best team in the nation as well. But don't sleep on Bama....anybody remember what happen to Miami in 92?
Florida and USC may FEEL like the best teams right now but Texas Tech and Alabama are the better teams over the entire season and have the body of work to prove it. As I understand it the rankings aren't there to display who is playing the best football in the country on a weekly basis or who IN THEORY has the best team once the "early-season hiccups" are overlooked. The rankings judge the season and a body of work as a whole and seeing as the only objective of a football game is to beat the other team, Alabama is at least worthy of consideration of the top spot. Anyone who says they'd put Florida at the #1 spot... I can't help you because they clearly haven't done a better job of accomplishing that one objective over the season as a whole. Playing a perfect season in the SEC is an accomplishment that I'm sad to see so many people taking so lightly. If you want to use the "who in THEORY has the best team without looking at the actual season's accomplishments and failures" criteria then let's just give the top spot to USC every year and save some time. Sure they tend to drop a game to an easy opponent every year but they are so talented and consistently have the best recruiting classes not to mention they lead the league in ESPN articles. Just like Florida they FEEL like the best team right now in spite of what their record says. It doesn't really matter who's ranked #1 at this point anyway. There are 2 possibilities. Either Alabama wins out or they don't. If they don't then it's still been a hell of a season and they're still the best team in the West. If they do then they've done enough to quiet all doubters and this statement ends up being retracted. Yes, I think Florida is currently playing better football than Alabama but I don't think they deserve to jump Bama just because of that. Alabama has the resume and Florida has put themselves in a position where they have to take it away if they want it. Texas Tech and Bama... that's a tossup and I wouldn't care if they switched spots.
Florida doesn't FEEL like the best team right now...They ARE the best team right now. Some of you other Bama fans must be hooked up permanently to IV's full of the kool-aid. Just because they lost to OM, doesnt mean we automatically will beat them because we beat OM. This argument is just stupid. Like it or not, Florida IS the best team and they will have the most talent on the field when we meet in Atlanta. Dont get me wrong, I think that we can win...But to say that Alabama "on paper" is a better team is just simply incorrect. You want to bring up the body of work? They have 1 L yes, but by 1 point in a trap game. We have squeaked by in our trap games but look at the rest of UF's games and common opponents...They totally run them off the field. I hope that UF is reading the press clippings and I hope that our guys are too...We can beat them, but we will need to play a near perfect game, be able to run the ball, and win the TO column.
The beauty of the SEC is that it is wholly unnecessary to argue this point. It will be decided on the field in ATL.
Wha...wha... What?!?! Please don't put words in my mouth. Is the line you quoted the only one you read? No one is debating that Florida is playing the best football NOW, but over the entire season we've done a better job of beating our opponents with a similiar SOS... hence at this point in the season we are deserving of a higher ranking. I clearly stated that I think Florida is playing better football than Alabama right now. It's right there in my post. Ok... that's ridiculous. Where did I make this argument? And how can a guy that honestly thinks Florida has the advantage in the game be drinking the Kool-aid? Disagree with me if you want, but don't do it for things that you THINK I MEANT to say. My stance has never been that Alabama will beat Florida in the game. I've never made a prediction. I've only tried to defend Alabama's current position in the rankings as being deserved especially for those that have stated that they think Florida should be ranked above Alabama. Second to last paragraph above. I've always believed that the measure of football was wins and losses and quality of opponents. As soon as you start bringing points into it it's a slippery slope, as we're currently seeing. Granted there's something to be said for domination of opponents but using scores BEFORE W's and L's is waaaay too subjective. To say that a one-loss team has a better body of work than another undefeated team with a similiar SOS is scary because it penalizes the style of football you decide to play. It also says that an inconsistent team that has the potential to hang 60 on an opponent is automatically better than a consistent team with a ball control offense. If that's the case then let's throw out the W's and L's and just rank teams based on points for and against during the season. Of course then we'd need to develop a forumula to determine how many dominating wins negates a close loss and how many ugly wins equals a loss. I prefer W's and L's only over a subjective beauty pageant. That's not me saying Alabama is better than Florida right now on the football field mind you, but they've done a better job of beating their opponents week in week out, which is the ultimate goal of football. Please feel free to respond to this but please wait till after you've read what I've written. :wink:
Sagarin and all of the other SOS rankings disagree big time. Bama has a schedule on par with Penn St while Floridas is top-10. Sagarin ranks SOS as Florida at #8. Bama at #72. http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/2008/Internet/toughest schedule/fbs_9games_cumm.pdf This one has Florida at #11 and Bama at #94. The point remains the same.
