Special to JohnFMurray.com – Dec 3, 2006 – Dr. John F. Murray, sport performance psychologist, has taken an informal survey on his newsletter list and discovered in an overwhelming manner that the University of Florida Gators football team, SEC Champions with their 38-28 win over Arkansas, is the reader pick as #2 team in the country, and should be ranked ahead of the Michigan Wolverines. If this is the case after the voting, Florida will and play Ohio State for the national title. If not, it will be a repeat between Ohio State and Michigan.
The two strongest reasons given favoring Florida over Michigan were: (1) a much more difficult schedule in the SEC; and (2) the fact that Florida is a conference champion whereas Michigan is #2 in their own conference. There also appears to be the novelty factor in that Michigan has already had a chance to beat Ohio State and did not, even though they played them very closely. One other frequent comment was that Florida – Ohio State will be a much more interesting game.
Out of 114 responses to the survey so far, 88 favor Florida as #2 team in the country and only 26 favored Michigan
Dr. John F. Murray is a sports psychologist and clinical psychologist providing sports psychology and counseling services based in Palm Beach, Florida.