With the best college football player in the nation, Tim Tebow, 2 BCS championships in 2006 and 2008, and former Trojan Emmanuel Moody, it is hard to argue that Florida is not the team of the decade. But according to Gator Bait.net USC is the team of the decade,
Seriously, though, USC is the team of the decade. The Trojans are 93-22 to Florida’s 87-31 through the first nine years of the 21st century, a sizable difference. You can point out the weakness of the Pac-10 all you want, but it is much harder to explain away the slew of top-rated recruiting classes and constant supply of high NFL draft picks USC has produced to back up its record.
The Trojans have finished fourth or higher in the final Associated Press poll for seven consecutive seasons. The Gators have finished among the top 10 only four times in the decade.
The Trojans were unranked in 2000 and 2001, spanning the end of the Paul Hackett era and the beginning of Pete Carroll‘s. The Gators were unranked in 2002 and 2004, Zook’s first and last years.
The Trojans have won six of their last seven bowl games and are 6-2 overall for the decade. The Gators have won three of four bowl games under Meyer but were 1-4 from 2000 to 2004.
The Trojans won 34 in a row from 2003 to 2005, a streak that ended with a BCS title loss to Texas in one of the most exciting games ever played. The Gators’ longest winning streak is 11, a number that would expand to 25 if they went undefeated this season.
Florida’s trump card over USC would be its three national championships, a difference that would mean more if the rules of the BCS game had not changed significantly within the decade. USC, which destroyed Oklahoma to win the 2004 championship, would have played in the 2003 title tilt with the same BCS formula in use today. Instead, the Trojans sat out even though they were ranked No. 1 in both polls and would have been favored over championship-game combatants Oklahoma or LSU.
On the surface, the USC-Florida question resembles the great Atlanta Braves-New York Yankees debate in the 1990s. Trust me, nothing irritated Marty Cohen more than hearing Braves fans or announcers touting them as the team of the 1990s when they won only one World Series to the Yankees’ three. The Atlanta argument: the Braves made the playoffs eight straight times from 1991 to 1999 (the ’94 season was canceled), while the Yankees’ first postseason trip was 1995.
LSU, (the) Ohio State, and Oklahoma fans feel free to weigh in.
yojoe Fight On!
Filed under: College Football, Football, LSU Football, Men of Troy, PAC-10, SEC, Sports, Trojans, USC, USC Football, USC Football Recruiting, USC Logo | Tagged: emmanuel moody, florida football, florida gators, florida national championships, gator bair.net, LSU Football, lsu team of the decade, oklahoma football, oklahoma team of the decade, sc football, team of the decade, the ohio state, tim tebow, USC Football, usc team of the decade | 4 Comments »
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