No. 1 vs. No. 2. The Crimson Tide vs. the Gator Chomp. Nick Saban carrying on the tradition of the Bear vs. Urban Meyer and his new-age spread offense.
Top-ranked Alabama (12-0) and second-ranked Florida (11-1) finished off the regular season with resounding wins to set up the SEC's most anticipated title game ever, a contest at the Georgia Dome next Saturday afternoon in what essentially serves as a semifinal for the BCS championship.
The winner is all but assured of a spot in the Jan. 8 title game at Miami.
"We're extremely proud of the way our team finished the season," said Saban, the coach who needed only two years to restore Alabama to national prominence. "To win 12 games in a season is pretty special to any group of players."
Now, it's on to the Georgia Dome for a game that should have a bit of a Kumbayah feel for the Crimson Tide. On that very same field, they opened the season with a 34-10 blowout of Clemson, a team that was ranked in the top 10 and expected to win the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Tigers never recovered-and the Tide never looked back. Bama built a stunning 31-0 halftime lead on preseason No. 1 Georgia, survived an overtime thriller against LSU in Saban's return to his former school, and blew out Auburn 36-0 this past weekend to emphatically snap a six-year losing streak to its most bitter rival.
Next up is the stiffest challenge yet.
Other than a stunning 31-30 loss to Mississippi in late September, Florida has not been seriously challenged by anyone. The Gators are the nation's third highest-scoring team (46.3 points per game) and their 11 wins have come by an average margin of 37.3.
Even though Alabama is unbeaten, it likely will go into the game as an underdog. Many are already sneaking a peak at what would appear to be the most appealing national championship possibility, a better-bring-your-calculator matchup between the Gators and No. 4 Oklahoma, which leads the nation with a 53.3-point scoring average heading into the Big 12 championship game against Missouri.
Saban shrugged off that sort of speculation.
"It doesn't matter," he said Sunday evening. "Florida has played really well and scored a lot of points. They haven't even had a close game other than the Ole Miss game. They are a dominant team. They deserve all the accolades their team gets, because they've played extremely well all year long."
So has Alabama, though not with the flair of the Tim Tebow-led Gators. The Tide prefers to pound teams into submission with a dominant running game, hit a big pass every now and then, win the special teams battle and come up with turnovers at just the right time.
"We're just going to go out and do what we do," massive noseguard Terrence Cody said. "If we play our game, we can beat anybody."
For those who may have forgotten, this is a throwback to the early days of the SEC championship. These teams met in the first three title games, starting with Alabama's 28-21 victory over the Gators on the way to its last national championship in 1992. After a one-year layoff, Florida romped to a 45-30 victory against the Tide in ‘96 and went on to capture its first national title.
They haven't faced off on this stage since 1999, when the Tide blew out Steve Spurrier and the Gators 34-7 for one of the rare highlights in the Mike DuBose era.
"I know there's a lot of history between these teams," said Meyer, who has his team two victories away from its second national title in three years. "I've done a lot of studying since I've been here."
But Meyer prefers to look forward. His most pressing issue is the health of Percy Harvin, whose breakneck speed makes him a lethal weapon out of the spread but may not be able to play against Alabama after spraining his right ankle in a 45-15 victory over Florida State.
"It's day to day," Meyer said in a Sunday teleconference from Gainesville. "He certainly won't practice the first couple of days this week. He is here today and moving around a little bit. We'll see what happens."
Harvin leads the Gators with 35 receptions for 595 yards and seven touchdowns, but he's equally dangerous whether catching a pass or taking a handoff. He has 61 carries for 538 yards, not to mention the nation's longest touchdown scoring streak of 14 consecutive games.
While Harvin's injury was a bit of a downer, it hardly lessened Florida's enthusiasm about playing for another SEC title.
"Our whole offseason was based on getting back to Atlanta," defensive star Brandon Spikes said. "Just sensing all the hard work, it's just been great, this whole road, the whole season. I think guys are ready.
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