This isn’t exactly a revolutionary concept for Gator fans, but I absolutely loathe and despise Florida State University.

This is one of the south’s most vitriol-filled rivalries. The Iron Bowl is nasty, but it’s an SEC game. The Florida-Georgia rivalry is starting to perk up now that the Dawgs feel they deserve more than one win every eight years in Jacksonville. But for all intents and purposes, this one’s one of, if not the nastiest.

An example of how hateful we fans can be: if Georgia goes on to win the SEC CG and then plays an out-of-conference opponent in a BCS bowl game, I’ll root for the Dawgs. If they’re the SEC’s best team in a given season, when they go out to represent that in a bowl game, I would like them to play well and make the conference proud. (They still suck 364 other days out of the year.)

Not so with FSU. I hate everything about them. Their uniforms are godawful ugly. Their coaching staff looks like a bunch of hillbillies. “St. Bobby” Bowden used to cackle with glee when his defense would dole out huge — and illegal — late hits on UF quarterbacks. Their fans are the worst in the entire southeast, with Miami and LSU fans running a close second and third.

I like watching them lose. At times in the past two years they’ve been pretty pathetic, such as when they were blown out 30-0 by Wake Forest on Ron Zook Field. Their anemic performance against a terrible Miami team earlier this season was memorable. (Miami is so bad that they couldn’t get within 7 touchdowns of Virginia, also a pretty marginal team.) I save games like that on my DVR, and savor the taste of their delicious tears.

If the Gators win on Saturday, it’ll be four straight over the ‘Noles, although in reality it should be five. I will never forget the worst officiating job in history, and the ACC crew, led by Jack Childress, who was responsible for it. That 2003 “loss” to the Noles is remembered always as “the Swindle in the Swamp.”

I’m not big on blaming the officials for the outcome of games. Generally, it stinks of loserdom. However, the Swindle was unique. It was an incredibly overt example of an officiating crew intentionally jobbing our team. No question about it. There were at least six terrible rulings on the field which all directly benefited the Seminoles. From NBC Sports.com:

Normally, tough calls even out over the course of a game. In this case, however, there were no fewer than six key calls, ranging from questionable to downright awful, all of which went against the Gators (8-4)… Among the worst of the calls came on the opening kickoff, when Florida State’s Antonio Cromartie fumbled and the Gators recovered. Officials ruled the play over before the fumble, even though Cromartie’s knee clearly hadn’t touched the ground.

In the third quarter, Florida State’s Pat Watkins scooped up a fumble and returned it for a score, even though Florida tailback Ciatrick Fason appeared to be flat on the ground before the ball popped out.

In the fourth quarter, Chris Rix ran for a touchdown and a 31-27 lead four plays after officials awarded the ball to the Seminoles, even though Gators linebacker Channing Crowder came out of the pile with the ball. Leon Washington, who fumbled, appeared to be sitting on the ball when officials made the call…

It was mind-boggling, it was disgusting, and it’s the first and hopefully last time that I witnessed in person a crew of officials, grown men all, stealing victory from a group of hard-working kids for their own benefit. There is no doubt in my mind that we were jobbed. The Gators still came within an eyelash of winning the game, but lost after a last-minute TD by FSU QB Chris Rix.

The only positive outcome is that Jack Childress and his crew were permanently banned from officiating any future FSU-UF games. That still doesn’t make up for the loss in the record books. I don’t consider it an actual game, as such. What the refs did was reduce a great rivalry game into a paperweight. It is not a victory for FSU, nor is it a loss for UF. It is simply “the Swindle in the Swamp,” an event that occurred on a football field… but wasn’t a real football game.

Florida has a lot to play for on Saturday. The SEC is lost, but Tim Tebow is now an overwhelming favorite for the Heisman Trophy. What better “gift” for our friends in the panhandle, than for our Golden Boy to clinch the Trophy with another Heisman-like performance at the expense of the ‘Noles?

That’s the kind of gift that keeps on giving. Go Gators.