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While I like many have spent plenty of money already on National Championship merchandise it seems almost that something has gotten lost with the bludgeoning of the unstoppable, unbeatable, unthisable, unthatable Ohio State Buckeyes and the fact that the 2006 football title comes not only in the same year as a National basketball title bt also in UF's 100 year celebration of football. That something that has gotten lost to a certain degree is the fact that the Gators won the Southeastern Conference Championship. May none of us EVER forget how precious those are. Winning a National Title is great. It is icing on the cake but I hope I'm right in beleiving that the Gator Nation would have been plenty placated with "just" an SEC title had Michigan gotten the nod to play OSU or had USC beaten UCLA.
In some strange way, I feel somewhat more gratified to have won the SEC than the NC. I guess I feel this way because nobody and I mean NOBODY can second guess an SEC title. (Not that there is much room for anyone to second guess a 41-14 "Buck Kicking" either.) What I mean is this: The Gators WON the eastern division no matter how you slice it. They didn't need somebody else to beat this guy or beat that guy. THEY WON IT, PERIOD. Arkansas won the west and the Gators won the championship by beating them. A championship WON in every sense. While the Gators deserved a shot @ OSU and of course showed the world that THEY BELONGED, the world would never know that they belonged without a colossal upset of USC by UCLA and depending on a vote. Did the Gators deserve the vote? Hell Yeah but therein lies the beauty of an SEC Championship. The Gators had to depend on only one thing...themselves. By nailing down a "W" 11 out of 12 weeks, they left no doubt about their deserved spot in the SEC title game. By winnig that game they became Champions of without question THE BEST football conference in America. There was no other team left out of the SEC title game who could claim the right to be there or claim that they were getting the shaft. (i.e an undefeated but Boise State team) Not that there has been a major out cry of an injustice coming out of Idaho or at least from what I've heard. But to this day I still hear from some talking heads on the radio that UF got lucky that USC lost to UCLA or that it should have been Michigan playing OSU all along. STILL, I'm hearing that after that DOMINATING game UF played against OSU.
The bottom line is this: Gator Nation, never, EVER take and SEC title for granted because I know there were some who started to back in the 90's. Why are they so special? Because when you win it, you know you've WON IT! It wasn't because of a vote for this team or that team or because this team beat that team. It was because you earned it WITHOUT having to worry about what anyone else says or does. I guess what I'm saying is take a lesson from the SEC NCAA! Arrange YOUR championship in such a way that no matter who wins it, nobody and I mean NOBODY can argue the point. Although in this particular year I don't think anyone can justify trying to. You can thank the Gators NCAA. They bailed your ass out by kicking Ohio State's!
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Orange and Brew
(24.129.104.133) on 1/20/2007 - 1:14 p.m. says: ( 222 views
, 1 likes
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