With two years like these, it’s bound to happen.

After Florida fans (and LSU, Georgia et al.) watched the pastings that the Gators and Tigers gave Ohio State, they saw the reputation of the Southeastern Conference validated on the BCS stage.

However, I want to look at some basic assumptions that fans of SEC schools have as a whole. Mark my words, this probably isn’t going to be the last post that I do on the subject.

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Lindy’s…. Athlon… Phil Steele.

You college football junkies out there have a stack of the pre-season CFB rags just like I do. Don’t try to hide it: embrace your affliction. In case you don’t, though, read on.

The Gators are getting a ton of pre-season love, and from my perspective, it might be a bit much. Here are Athlon, Lindy’s, and Phil Steele’s Top 10:


Average ranking, Ohio State: 2.3
Average ranking, Florida: 2.6
Average ranking, Georgia: 5.0

So… how does that shake out? Florida gets ranked #1 by two of the three rags, but doesn’t even get a Top 5 nod by Lindy’s. Georgia pulls the #1 pick in that same rag but is ranked #5 and #9 by the others.
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Teams can score, score, score, but how much do they get done with each bucket? Conversely, how good are their defenses per possession?
And is there a way we can gauge how strong teams are?

Consider: Right after Florida won its second straight title, Grant Hill was asked about how the Duke teams of the early 90’s would have fared against the Gators. To which he said something to the effect of:

“We’d beat them by at least 15 to 20 points.”

But how can we measure that? There is a crude, but effective way.

Unlike the Win Score Metric, which considers only individuals and can vary based on possessions, the efficiency rating is more static and can be applied to nearly any team. It is calculated by

Efficiency = Points per 100 Possessions - Opponents’ Points per 100 possessions

Since it can measure the relative offensive and defensive strength of a team, it serves as a useful, albeit partial, measure of how “good” or “bad” teams are.

For example, this year’s Florida team scored 132.4 points per 100 tries (including free throws), but allowed 119.4 points per 100 possessions on defense. Thus, their efficiency is

132.4 - 119.4 = 13.0

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Click to see larger version

I love EA’s NCAA Football series. So help me sweet baby Jesus, I love it.

My first encounter was NCAA 2004. Didn’t play it much. Got NCAA 05 and via random button mashing and playcalling, learned that Chris Leak threw a fantastic bomb to Chad Jackson on play-action out of the Ace formation. Discovered the direct HB snap, slot outs, and the speed option. Addiction set in.

Now it’s gotten to the point that I eagerly anticipate EA’s July launch of their college football franchise. Hell, I even look forward to the unveiling of the cover athlete. I was a little annoyed when Jared Zabransky (are you kidding me?) made the cover — instead of national championship MVP Chris Leak! — for NCAA ‘08.

Now NCAA ‘09 is soon to be upon us and the requisite team ratings are starting to leak out. A screenshot of Florida’s team ratings appear above. Not surprisingly, “QB #15″ is atop the list, followed by “WR #1″.
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One of the more interesting debates on the Gator roundtable is whether Tim Tebow can join Ohio State legend Archie Griffin in the Multiple Heisman club.

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With the NFL draft just nine days away, it’s time to pay homage to the junior DE’s career.

As one of the last recruits of the Ron Zook era, Harvey was one of the most highly touted prospects at the front four in ‘04. Four years later, not much has changed. With one redshirt season, SEC title, national championship, and defensive MVP on his belt, he’s projected to go high in the first round.

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Fine job, men. Fine job indeed.

Wish you hadn’t allowed that garbage TD to make it a semi-respectable score there at the end, but thank you for defending SEC pride.

SEC bowl record: 7-2. (Can’t believe Florida made up 50% of the ‘2′. Horrifying. But at least the crystal football came back to the right conference.)

I do take some small measure of satisfaction in the fact that Ohio State is now 0-9 against SEC teams in bowl games. Ouch!

I miss them so much…

At least this time, the game had no real meaning. But that win had to feel good for the Buckeyes, who lost the last three matchups to UF in both hoops and football, twice with national titles on the line. Gators 3, Buckeyes 1.

I didn’t expect UF to win this game and I said prior to tip that I’d be happy with a competitive, physical performance from our boys.

I’m not sure we really got that from them.

The final: 62-49. It was a nightmarish outing for the Gators, going 4-23 from beyond the arc and shooting only 33.3% from the field. The Gators didn’t get to the free throw line terribly often, but they were often terrible there, managing a horrible 53.8%. That’s not going to cut it, folks.
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Great memories, eh? Disclaimer: I am totally ripping this off from Alligator Army, the SB Nation Gators blog tended to by occasional commenter mlmintampa.

Has it really been a year since that December matchup against Ohio State? That was one of my favorite games I witnessed personally in the O’Connell Center: the excitement of an Oden vs. Horf/Noah matchup, a Top 5 hoops game in December telecast by CBS, and, oh yeah, TOTAL GATOR DOMINATION. It led to a rematch for all the marbles, a game Florida won — again — on the strength of a beautiful gameplan by Billy Donovan, amazing aerobatics by Corey Brewer and yet another unconscious performance by our baby-faced assassin, Lee Humphrey. The Horf shimmy! Legend.

Anyway… it’s not going to look that way this year. We’ll look back fondly on those great ‘06 and ‘07 teams for as long as we live and breathe, but the ‘08 season brings us a new group of Gators. They’re raw, they’re young, and they’re not fully grown yet. But they’re amazingly talented and I expect them to do great things in the coming years.

Let me be honest: winning this game is going to be tough. Yes, Ohio State is 7-3 and Florida is 11-1, but let’s face the facts: the Gators have played no one except FSU, and they lost badly in that game. Ohio State, meanwhile, has played some pretty tough dudes: a close loss to #1 North Carolina and a win over Syracuse, who despite not being all that great in ‘08 are without a doubt better than anyone our kids have played.

A win would be great, but I’m looking for a tough, physical performance from our young Gators. Winning 4 in a row would be… heavenly. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that this team is still learning how to play college ball.

Tip is at 4:00PM ET in Columbus. Go Gators.

When confronted with the season schedule of the Ohio State Buckeyes on The Colin Cowherd Show, Chris Spielman asked “What is the purpose of college football?“ Spielman, an Ohio State graduate, defended his alma mater’s place at number one in the polls despite having a current strength of schedule 49 spots below second ranked South Florida. His reasoning is that it’s not the job of programs to play in compelling matchups and entertain the fans, it’s to win championships - Big 10, Pac 10, Big East and National Championships. Therefore he is not at all embarrassed by Ohio State’s pathetic schedule as long as it helps his school attain a shot at a title.

But when we examine Ohio State’s schedule we see some very disturbing trends. First we look at the Buckeyes Out Of Conference (OOC) opponents - Youngstown State (a Division 1-AA school), Akron, Kent State and Washington. Since these schedules are made years in advance (but not really that far in advance when scheduling the mid-major schools like Akron, Kent State, etc) we shouldn’t just focus on their current record but their state as a PROGRAM, aka recent success. So what were the Ohio State Athletic Director and Head Coach Jim Tressell looking for in an opponent?

First we will dismiss Youngstown State as a credible opponent since it is Division 1-AA school. Sure, everyone knows about Appalachian State’s upset of Michigan. But the percentage of wins of a 1-AA school against a 1-A school are EXTREMELY low. This is what made Appy State’s win so incredible. But Youngstown St. was scheduled before the upset so even if the Buckeyes had second thoughts it was too late. This is a win is a win is a win of a game that is regularly referred to as a “paycheck game“. YSU picked up their big paycheck, got pounded 38-6 and left town bloodied but richer.

Next Ohio State turned their attention to mighty Akron. Akron is nicknamed the Zips and that’s the same chance they stood against the Buckeyes . . . ZIP! (more…)