Just saw on ESPN where TN finished 4th in both major polls behind Miami, Oregon, AND Florida.

I could have swore TN beat Fla in their own backyard more soundly than the final score indicated.

I suppose both coaches & writers in these polls calculated Fla losing to TN much like my boy Wooley Carter did the Huskers loss to Colorado--as just a "bad day" for the Gators.

Oh yes, I forgot, the "Ernest Graham didn't play" excuse also had to be factored into the final polling--no wonder the Gators finished ahead of Tennessee.

This is another reason not use polls voted on by people or computer polls as the way to determine the champion of a sport. Decide it on the field.

yep.

Did Florida not even get the chance to play them in the SEC champ. game? I have just as hard a time swallowing LSU being behind us as Florida ahead. To me it just indicates or emphasizes the overrated Michigan team and the pollsters value of the UT win over them. How else do we pass up LSU?

much like many of the callers on 1240, the national media is simply infatuated with StevieBoy. Hell, Catfish will still tell you to this day that SOS is a god!

Herbstreit said last night that "...the only team that could have stayed with Miami is Florida, because of their speed...". Excuse me? Florida couldn't stay with our speed, could they? Travis ran away from them all day long!

I don't even worry about the media, polls, focus groups, computer rankings, etc. anymore. What happens on the field usually tells the story. UF may be ahead of us, but every one of those 85 punks down there in Gainesville know that we CORNHOLED THEIR ASS ON NATIONAL TV.

That is enough for me!

_____________________________
SEC EAST CHAMPS!
2002 IS OUR TIME!

according to the last edition of the BCS (Dec.10th), TN's 11 wins came against opponents with a 35.9 average ranking & Fla's 10 wins came against opponents with a 46.6 average ranking.

Also, the losses of each team was basically a wash when calculating the average rankings of the two opponents that defeated each team (Fla: 15 avg rank/TN: 15.5 avg rank).

Hell, no wonder Fulmer had Clausen in the last 10:00 minutes of the game against Michigan! I just wish TN's focus would have been to put more points on the board instead of getting 400 passing yds for Casey.

I know these final polls really don't make a damn in the grand scheme of things, but it is hard to see a team you defeated along with the stats noted above and not be aggrevated they end up being ranked higher.

Oh well, I suppose this is the way fla felt when TN finished ahead of them in the coaches poll after the '95 season, uh?

Plus the fact LSU had three losses on the season whereas TN & Fla only had two. Heck, you're sounding like the national punditry begging for a two loss Colorado to be the team deserving to play Miami.

Bottom line is LSU shouldn't have been ranked ahead of either TN or Fla.

"How else do we pass up LSU?"

We were never ranked below LSU. Those clowns lost 3 conference regular season game, was able to get to the SEC title game without beating UT or UF in the regular season. Florida beat the absolute hell out of them by 4 TDs in their own stadium. Ole Miss beat them soundly in Baton Rouge.

LSU is the weakest SEC Champion, perhaps ever. You can thank our choke job (in Baton Rouge 2000 & SECC 2001) for their smoke & mirrors re-emergence.

Using your logic, Oregon should have never passed Stanford in the final poll. I agree with BT here.

Carter,

That response was uncharacteristic for a man of your intellect. I think carrying water for Roy Kramer and his minions has worn you down. Take two BCS powders and post again in the morning.

Another poster.

Whoops. My apologies to the entire Wooley Nation. WC was unjustly accused and I don't know WooleyOne well enough to take a shot at him.

Brocky,

WoolyOne would probably appreciate if we get his name right. It's Wooly not Wolly or Wooley

Brocky, I have to revert to this statement:

"Oh yes, I forgot, the "Ernest Graham didn't play" excuse also had to be factored into the final polling--no wonder the Gators finished ahead of Tennessee."

You beat me to the punch. I am so sick and tired of the Ernest Graham factor (or lack thereof) as an excuse for losing. I am tired of people saying that Spurrier uses a "balanced offense."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Fun'n'Gun uses the running game just to wear down the clock when UF is up by 50 points. UF was 85th in the nation in running; 10th or 11th in the league.

You can't win championships with those numbers.

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"Now or never
Too close to the latter
We're all living proof that nothing lasts"

-Jay Farrar

seeing that I am a dumber-than-dirt sheep, I lack the intellect to detect misspellings or even begin to fathom "higher-intellect" cut-downs such as the Graymouse can deliver.

I'm merely making the point that there seemed to be a lot made of Nebraska not deserving to be #2 and play in the Rose Bowl because of their loss to Colorado at the end of the season, not winning their division/conference, Oregon should play (which I agreed with BTW) etc. If that is true, how in the heck can UT be ahead of LSU and FLA ahead of UT?

Your answer is "rankings" - the same stupid polls and computer models that are supposed to take into account margins of victory, strength of schedule and so forth - which by virtue of these final "rankings" prove they stink. You can argue that LSU lost to Ole Miss, UT and FLA, but they still beat UT in "the last game of the regular season" and two of those losses were to teams in the top 5. O.k., so grant that UT had a bad night vs. LSU (who are we kiddin'? really bad, couldn't beat the 2nd string QB and RB)and it was a fluke win. They are still 1-1. UT pommels Michigan who had how many losses? LSU beats the crap out of Illinois.

I guess it makes for good talk-show fodder, and honestly, I believe some of poll stuff is total bull just to keep the story going - it's obvious by the bowl game scores and initial rankings vs. what happens each year, the "polls" are a bunch of baloney.

The best teams still aren't playing each other and they don't "rank" the way they should at the end of the year.