BCS top 10
1. Alabama .9625
2. Florida .9310
3. Kansas State .9111
4. Oregon .8966
5. Notre Dame .8512
6. LSU .7862
7. Oregon State .7421
8. Oklahoma .7126
9. USC .5767
10. Georgia .5379
This is the fragility of the Gators’ success: Everything they have accomplished to this point is at risk in one game.
No. 3 Florida is coming off a 44-11 blowout of South Carolina and stands at 7-0 for only the fourth time in school history. But the Gators still have to get past No. 12 Georgia. Despite all of Florida’s impressive victories, the SEC Eastern Division remains undecided heading into Saturday’s game at EverBank Field in Jacksonville (3:30 p.m., CBS).
“We don’t have a lot of margin for error here,” said coach Will Muschamp, whose team remained second in the BCS standings this week behind Alabama.
Muschamp was talking about UF’s tenuous winning formula, though he knows that statement also is true regarding the Gators’ perilous path to the SEC Championship Game.
If Florida (7-0, 6-0 in the conference) wins this week, it seals its first SEC East title since 2009 and will play against the Western Division champ in Atlanta on Dec. 1. It would be a stunning turnaround after going 7-9 in the SEC over the past two years.
Georgia is in a similar position. The Bulldogs (6-1, 4-1) can pull ahead in the East by beating Florida. That would put both teams with one SEC loss, and Georgia would own a head-to-head tie-breaker. UF would have to finish one game ahead of the Bulldogs, a difficult task given that Georgia finishes the season against Ole Miss and Auburn. Those teams are in jeopardy of not qualifying for a bowl game.
“We just look at this as another stepping stone towards getting to Atlanta, another obstacle that we need to overcome,” Florida center Jonotthan Harrison said. “We’re going to play this team as if it’s our last, as if it’s a national championship.”
Even No. 17 South Carolina remains alive, though it would require specific and improbable sequences to take the division. The Gamecocks (6-2, 4-2) have to win their last two games to finish 6-2 in the SEC. If Georgia and Florida both stumble to 6-2, the tie-breaking procedure would spit out South Carolina as the East champion.
Florida’s route to the BCS Championship Game or the Sugar Bowl also is in the balance. It would be almost impossible to go to either bowl without winning the division.
In the latest BCS standings, Alabama is first, followed by UF, Kansas State, Oregon and Notre Dame. The SEC had four other programs in the top 25: Georgia (10th), Mississippi State (11th), South Carolina (13th) and Texas A&M (20th).
Georgia started the year among the elite before South Carolina crushed the Bulldogs 35-7 earlier this month. When the Gamecocks lost at Florida, it reignited Georgia’s hope of winning the conference and vying for a national title.
“We weren’t excited about what happened, but we knew there was a lot of football to be played,” Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said. “If we’d get back to work and take care of our business, there was a good chance we’d be back in the race. As it turned it out, it happened relatively quick.”
After Georgia, the Gators host Missouri, which has yet to win an SEC game, followed by two lightweight non-conference teams. The last hurdle in UF’s regular-season schedule is a Nov. 24 road game against No. 11 Florida State. The Seminoles are 12th in the BCS standings.
Very little of that will be discussed in the Heavener Football Complex this week. Instead, an ongoing theme for the Gators is revenge. They want payback against all the teams that embarrassed them last season, when UF went 7-6.
The Gators already hit LSU and South Carolina with counterpunches. Georgia is high on their list. In last year’s game, Florida blew a 17-3 lead and watched the Bulldogs carry away a 24-20 win.
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