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For Some Reason, Gators Championship Slot Doesn't Compute

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2008

The computers don't like the Florida Gators for the National Championship Game.

Although the 12-1 Gators, fresh off a 31-20 win over No. 1-ranked Alabama in the SEC title game, finished second in the final regular-season BCS poll announced Sunday and will play No. 1 Oklahoma on Jan. 8 for the NCAA Championship, they did it despite the computer geeks.

The BCS is a composite of three polls – the Harris Interactive (from a panel of college football experts), the Coaches Poll and the computers, a ranking reached by six guys with pocket protectors.

The Harris panel ranked the Gators first, OU second and Texas third.

The coaches went with Oklahoma, Florida and Texas.

But the computers, which heavily rely on margins of victory and supposed strength of schedules, listed Florida third behind Oklahoma and Texas.

"I kept hearing about the computer," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "The way I know about computers is you push 'on' and sign on the Internet every once in a while and do a spread sheet every once in a while. Other than that, I don't know what goes into it."

The Associated Press poll, a vote of sportswriters and broadcasters that is not used in the BCS system, has Florida No. 1, Oklahoma 2 and Texas 3.

Despite the Ctrl/Alt-Delete treatment, the Gators will be making their second appearance in the National Championship game in three years. They beat Ohio State for the 2006 title.

"One of the interesting aspects of where we are, looking at the standings, is that Florida and Oklahoma are one or two in the Harris poll, coaches' poll and even the AP poll, which is not used in the BCS standings," BCS chairman John Swofford said. "You have a consistency there with the human polls on those same two teams."

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