Florida Gators Deserve To Be in Your Bracket

For the next month, now that the Super Bowl is over, the big story in sports will be the NCAA Tournament Selection process. 

Everyone from ESPN, CBS sports, and even our own Bleacher Report will be giving you their "bracketology."

Well, any successful "bracketologist" would be wise to include the Florida Gators in their bracket.

Having played well in one of the top conferences this year, the Gators deserve a bid. SEC standouts Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee have been fixtures in the top 25.

UK has taken up residence in the top five and has also had a stint at No. 1. The Gators themselves had a brief stay in the top ten early in the year. Mississippi and Mississippi State have cracked the top 25 as well.

That means half the conference has been ranked at some point.

In addition, the SEC East has been far superior to the West. So far, the West has won only four times against the East.

Florida has four wins against the West by themselves.

So, if the Selection Committee rewards a team like Arkansas or MSU for winning the West and punishes Florida for finishing fourth in the East, that would be a joke. Don't forget, each SEC team only plays the teams in the other division once.

So, while Florida is playing Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Georgia twice, Mississippi State gets to play winless LSU twice, Auburn twice, and Alabama twice.

That is a big difference in scheduling.

So far, UF has beaten every West team they've faced. What if they got to face them all twice?

Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt are widely considered to be three teams that are a lock to get a bid to the tournament. Florida has only lost to those three teams.

A win against Auburn next week and Ole Miss the following week would give UF a win over every SEC team other than those three. So if the SEC gets more than three bids, which will likely happen, then Florida should obviously be team No. 4.

The Gators could really improve their stock if they can beat Vandy or Tennessee later this season. They play both teams at home in the O'Connell Center. Since they lost to UT by one point in Knoxville and Vandy by single digits in Nashville, you have to like their chances to get at least one of two.

But even if UF goes 0-6 against the "Big Three," if they can go 10-0 against everyone else, that should be enough. A 10-6 SEC mark with non conference wins over Michigan State, Florida State, NC State, Rutgers, Jacksonville, and possibly Xavier (the Gators play them at home this Saturday) should get any team in.

If not, then somebody has some explaining to do.