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One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

12/03/2006

Michigan or Florida?

It may sound like I'm writing out of both sides of my computer here, but I'm really not. I voted Michigan No. 2 and Florida No. 3 in my final regular season AP poll, a vote I cast earlier this morning, because I think the Wolverines are the better team. Michigan and Florida have comparable defenses, but offensively and in the kicking game I give the Wolverines the edge. That said, I think Florida is more deserving of the spot opposite Ohio State in the BCS title game. Why? A couple reasons. Florida won its conference and no one can argue the SEC is the toughest conference in the nation. Second, Florida played a tougher overall schedule than Michigan giving it a more complete resume. Florida's wins over LSU and Arkansas are more impressive than Michigan's victories over Wisconsin and Notre Dame. As an AP voter, my job is to rank the best teams in the country as I see them, subjectively. If I was a Harris Poll voter, I might have put Florida No. 2 and Michigan No. 3. I still think the Wolverines are better and would beat Florida head-to-head, but Harris Poll voters are charged with helping put the two most deserving teams in the title game and that would be Florida and OSU.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Harris Poll is a poll for the most deserving? That really doesn't make sense!

5:33 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for reading junkman. All I'm saying is, our objective as AP voters is to rank the top teams in the country, placing the team we think is best at No. 1, the team we think is second best at No. 2, and on down. That's what I did by ranking Michigan ahead of Florida.

From talking to a Harris Poll voter who ranked Florida No. 2, his belief was that he was to rank the two teams most deserving of playing in the national championship game. Because of Florida's resume, he put the Gators No. 2 ahead of Michigan.

I agree that Florida's resume - a conference championship, a tougher schedule, etc. - is more impressive than Michigan's, but that doesn't mean the Gators would beat the Wolverines on the field.

4:34 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Michigan looked infantile against USC.
Against Florida they would fair worse. Lets face it, Michigan has good press and nothing more.
they don't play the tough schedules the Southern teams do

1:36 PM 

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