http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/12/04/why.florida.ap/index.html Gotta love Spurrier's honesty....."heck...I'm a Gator!"
So if I read Spurrier right, the deciding fact was that Fla. beat W. Car. Hell they could have beaten them with the third string.
Here's anothet thing I take issue with in the article. ND won the commander in chief trophy. Snicker, snicker. Actually Navy won it. And if you look at the Sagrin ratings Navy is rated higher than Ala, FSU, Vandy, Miss, So. Miss and W. Car.
It seems clear that the deciding factor was the unpopularity of the rematch issue, more of an emotional rather than an objective element, imo. From a purely objective standpoint, follow the money. Given the operative point spreads in the relevant games it's probable - almost certain - that M would be favored in a match-up with the Gators. Also relevant is the movement of the Buckeye national championship futures after the announcement giving the nod to the Gators over M. Prior to USC's loss, investors were giving the Buckeyes a 64.5% chance of winning the NC. After USC's loss - leaving UF and M as possible opponents, investors bid up the Buckeye chances to 67% evidencing the money view that USC had a marginally better chance to beat the Bucks than either M of UF. After the announcement Sunday evening, eliminating the possibility of a rematch and leaving only the Gators, the futures shot up to a 73% chance of a Buckeye victory. Obviously the money believed that M provided a more challenging opponent. No politicking, no whining, no emotion, just cold hard cash.
Buckeye Terry, I'm curious about one thing. Do you think there should have been a rematch? Personally I think that would have very much worked against Ohio State and that could have been reflected in the betting numbers you quoted. It's hard to win a rematch, and I'll say it before gipper, as FSU found out.
I'm still wondering if Mr Carr would have wanted a rematch had UMich upset OSU in the regular season. I bet he'd rather have UF over OSU or USC.
Bill, from a purely personal perspective, I was not in favor of a rematch. I did not believe it would have been fair to our kids. That's a different standard however than the criteria to determine the challenger in the NC game. Purely from the perspective of matching the nations top two teams, as I have said, imo, I think M was a worthy opponent. However, so long as humans vote, emotions and politics will play a role in deciding the match-ups and the people have spoken.
T As your posts seems to indicate, do you really think there is a means of honestly and purely objectively determining the rankings of Div 1 A football teams at the end of the regular season ..... a regular season which requires conference champioship games for some and not others?
Gaterz...we could go with the Las Vegas futures. :lol: Boy, could you imagine the chaos that would cause???
GF, In answer to your question, I believe Tressel, Carr, and Bo, two days before his death, stated that a rematch would be unfair to the winner.