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Florida. I've said Florida is the best team in the country for the last two months. I've said Florida is the best team in the country even after the loss to Ole Miss (which I blame on me being in Gainesville; Florida always loses when I'm there). I've said Florida is the best team in the country even after its one really good win, Alabama, suddenly looked not-so-hot after the Sugar Bowl.

Fine, so I'm wavering a bit since I don't think this Oklahoma team is anything like the past few tremendously talented teams that came up with stunning duds in the BCS spotlight, but with the Big 12 South coming up with a lousy bowl season (and I'm sort of including a Texas team that was looking to make a statement yet struggled against a good, but flawed Ohio State), I still like the Gators.

The time off will be the key. Notice how it took a while for Texas to get its offense moving? How about the Texas Tech offense that was good against Ole Miss, but not its normal self? How about the Missouri attack that was ice-cold against an overmatched Northwestern? Teams with great offenses tend to struggle after having a month off, and I also think the Florida defense will have something to do with the problems.

Richard Cirminiello

Florida, 38-28. Both offenses are going to score. The difference will come on defense and special teams, where the Gators have an edge in both areas. Plus, recent history suggests that Urban Meyer and his staff are more reliable in games of this magnitude than Bob Stoops and his staff. It would be unwise to discount Oklahoma's four straight BCS bowl losses as a fluke.

At some point, one team will need to step up and make a big play, and that team will be Florida. Look for LB Brandon Spikes to have a huge night before declaring for the NFL, and the speed of ends Jermaine Cunningham and Carlos Dunlap to cause problems for that talented Sooners O-line. Remember, Brian Orakpo and Texas had success getting to Sam Bradford back in October.

If Percy Harvin's ankle is 100 percent, the Gators will win by double-digits. If Oklahoma hasn't solved its season-long problems defending kickoffs, the outcome won't be in doubt in the final 15 minutes.

Matthew Zemek

The BCS championship game winner will be Oklahoma haters.

This Gator-Sooners showdown was just a nice, pleasant championship game for the longest time. But over the weekend, something happened that gave OU's fiercest and harshest critics — the ones who absolutely rip the program to shreds when it loses a bowl game (despite winning conference title after conference title and being extraordinarily consistent at a very high level, something only USC and Ohio State have been able to match this decade) — a considerable amount of ammunition.

It's not completely fair, but one can see it coming a mile away: A young man named Dominique Franks is about to become responsible for sending his team into a deep, dark ditch of despair. Oklahoma doesn't deserve the fate it's about to experience, but Dominique Franks has already become one of the stupidest people of 2009.

Franks, a sophomore cornerback, said over the weekend that Tim Tebow rates below the Big 12's batch of big-time quarterbacks. Perhaps he was just trying to be candid, but there's really no excuse for an Oklahoma Sooners football player to be popping off before a mammoth bowl game, especially a title tilt.

Not when Alabama coach Nick Saban fired up Utah with a pointed reference to "a real BCS conference" in the days leading up to the Sugar Bowl.

Not when Oklahoma's last national-title game — played in Miami's Dolphins Stadium against a team with a Heisman quarterback — also turned into an ugly blowout loss.

Not when that 2005 Orange Bowl also involved an incendiary statement made by a Sooner player in the weeks before kickoff.

Not when Sooners defensive lineman Larry Birdine, just before taking the field with USC, called the Trojans' offense "average."

Not when USC's "average" offense proceeded to utterly humiliate an OU team that up and quit even before halftime, by a score of 55-19.

Larry Birdine was Dominique Franks four years ago (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

Dominique Franks, meet Larry Birdine. Larry Birdine, Dominique Franks.

Bob Stoops tried to defend Franks, saying to the assembled media, "You guys lead young guys into a lot of questions."

Yo, Bob, why didn't you just tell your team not to make any statements that would wave the red flag in front of the raging bull on the other side of the divide?

I admire what you've done with OU, Coach Stoops, and your program has taken far too much abuse after recent bowl losses, but with that having been said, there are no excuses to make in this case. After the 2005 Orange Bowl and the Birdine gaffe, there should have been no way in tarnation for a Sooner player to give a prodigiously talented opponent an extra shot of emotional juice.

"Tarnation" is not, of course, a real word, but it's a really nice cartoon word. So as a memorably angry cartoon figure once said, "Say yer prayers, rabbit!"

This time, Yosemite Sam has a point. Dominique Franks is about to become hossenfeffer.

KJM Singleton

Oklahoma ... or at least it was until OU cornerback Dominique "The Human Bulletin Board" Franks opened his mouth Sunday. Franks called the best player in this game (but only its second-best QB) Tim Tebow a "running quarterback."

To quote Tebow after Florida's lone loss: A lot of good will come out of this.

Since the Ole Miss defeat he has a 11-1 TD-INT ratio, including no picks in Florida's last six games. His arm looks fine.

Dominique, you're a good corner (four picks). I suggest you do something you're used to: backpedal quickly away from these statements.