Does UF have a chance?

Do the Gators have a chance against Ohio State?

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how that is even a question. But for some reason, I have been asked that question countless times over the course of the past month or so.

Of course they have a chance. But I can understand where college football fans are coming from when they ask such a question. Turn on ESPN for five minutes and a naïve viewer can come away with the impression that Ohio State is the Harlem Globetrotters of college football with UF playing the role of the Washington Generals.

But isn’t that exactly what the experts were saying about the other bowl game in Glendale before Boise State inexplicably knocked off Big 12 champ Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl? Now some of these same analysts and columnists are saying that Boise State has a legitimate argument to be the national champion should UF defeat Ohio State. I think Boise State has been underrated for years, but that is so absurd I don’t know where to begin.

And with the country’s most overrated team getting crushed by Southern Cal (as I predicted, and I have the cash winnings on my bet to prove it), the Gators won’t have to worry about a few misguided voters shunning the results of the title game in favor of Michigan.

UF lost just one game, playing in the toughest conference in America and playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. And the game UF lost was not only a very close game but a controversial one at that. Regardless, UF lost the game but finished out a brutal schedule with just that one loss.

And any team who has accomplished that has a chance to defeat anyone in the country. Even Ohio State.

With that said, you won’t catch me betting on the Gators in that game. Ohio State, unlike Big 10 rival Michigan, is legit. They only beat the Wolverines by 3 points, but that game was never really in doubt, and it felt like the Buckeyes won by two touchdowns.

But the beauty of the whole thing for UF fans is that it is a no-lose situation. If the Gators lose, they are simply doing what they were supposed to do. If they win, all that BCS controversy will be evaporated and everyone will be waiting in line to hop aboard the UF bandwagon.

Remember when Ohio State defeated supposedly unbeatable Miami in 2002?

The Gators shouldn’t worry too much. That Buckeyes team had no chance to win, either.