there are too many Dr J commercials. I am never drinking a Dr Pepper again.

Let me wish the Florida Gators all the best of luck in the National Championship Game.

(I, of course, will still be rooting for my second-favorite team… which is whoever’s playing Florida.)

Gee thanks Kyle.

If we beat Oklahoma in Miami, would that be enough to move us to #1 in your poll, or are you still too enamored with the Arena League they call the Big 12?!?

I understand that things didn’t turn out the way you wanted this season for the Dawgs, but there’s no need to discount the entire conference because of it. I could be wrong, but I would feel pretty good about taking Florida OR Alabama over any of the three Big 12 teams.

Let’s not be computers and be human for a second. If you watched the Big 12 games, do you really think that all those offenses are just so spectacular that no defenses can stop them? Or, like me, do you feel like you are watching the Georgia Force play the San Jose Sabercats? All they are missing are those padded walls and bad promos.

We saw on Saturday what happens when a spectacular offense meets a strong defense. Alabama held us to 31 – well below our average.

What happens when Oklahoma faces a solid defense? We’ll find out January 8th, as that will be the first time this season. I’ll take the under.

Look at the quarterbacks in that league: Bradford, McCoy, Harrell, Daniel, Reesing, Robinson…they’re all exceptional quarterbacks directing competent offenses. This has been referred to as the best collection of quarterbacks in a conference by some—I don’t know about that personally, but it’s a pretty solid collection.

Let’s look at the SEC. The only quarterbacks on that same level are Stafford and Tebow. Incidentally, theirs are the only two teams that can really play offense, plus Alabama—Ole Miss and Arkansas are passable in that regard, but that’s pushing it. If you look at the Big XII as Arena Football because of the offensive prowess, what could someone on the other side say about the SEC? Cro-magnon level in regards to the offensive deficiencies?

I’d argue that the function of the ‘great’ SEC defenses this year are due to the fact that the offenses in the league are just pitiful. Look at USC. Their defense is producing at historic levels, but everyone qualifies their historic performance by saying that they accomplished it against the weakest Pac-10 in years, which is true—everyone held Washington and Washington State to low totals. Just the same, the SEC’s defenses at this point in time have to be qualified in the same manner.

The bowl games will provide some pretty solid matchups that will, in some estimations, end this talk. There are so many factors for each team in them (a month after the season, team expectations, coaching changes, players not playing, etc) that I don’t put too much stock in bowl games as the decisive verdict, but they’ll provide useful info nevertheless.

I’m looking for a good championship game between the Sooners and the Gators. But I wouldn’t dog the Sooner’s defense, or heap too much praise on the Gators’: Oklahoma held an outstanding Texas Tech offense to 21 points. That qualifies as pretty impressive in my book.

… even though I think the Orange and Penn State should play fairly regularly. The series was put on the schedule in the late coach P/early GRob era (I don’t remember exactly when, but less than seven years ago). We haven’t had a winning season since 2001 (when Dwight Freeney single-handedly destroyed any offense that faced us — well, except Miami’s; that season was the only season where the Orange won more than six games this decade, which was why PSU was suddenly willing to play us again); since then, we’ve been 4-8, 6-6, 6-6, 1-10, 4-8, 2-10, and 3-9.