The Orlando Sentinel's Jeremy Fowler wrote Wednesday about the possibility of Florida dropping their game with Charleston Southern in exchange for a game against a Mountain West team. It was nothing more than message board banter. However, it does bring up one concern; if there are several undefeated teams, would a game against Charleston Southern negatively influence Florida's ranking? Let's take a look at some notable teams and compare where Florida's schedule stacks up. [Note: Division 1-AA (FCS) are marked with *. Neutral sites marked with (n). USC has only three out-of-conference games because they play a round robin, nine game Pac-10 schedule.]
| Florida | Ohio St. | Oklahoma | Texas | USC | Utah |
| Charles. Sou* | Navy | BYU (n) | La. Monroe | San Jose St. | Utah St. |
| Troy | USC | Idaho St.* | @ Wyoming | @ Ohio St. | @ San Jose St. |
| Florida Intl. | Toledo (n) | Tulsa | UTEP | @ Notre Dame | @ Oregon |
| Florida St. | New Mex. St. | @ Miami | UCF | Louisville |
Compared to these five teams, UF's schedule is not awful, but it is the only one where they don't leave their building. (Ohio State's neutral site game is in Cleveland.) Could that, combined with games against Troy and FIU, sink the Gators' ranking? I think we all correctly assume if Florida is undefeated, they will have a chance to defend their national title but stranger things have happened. If these teams have one loss, then all bets are off. Plus, as we carry the banner of SEC supremacy, remember this might be a down year for the East Division. Kiffyfins is in year one and Georgia has to replace their starting qb and all-world running back.
I've already said what I think about games against weak sisters that do nothing but fill university coffers. I still think scheduling games against Charleston Southern or Idaho State could cost a team a shot at a BCS Championship. Just pray to Football Jesus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster that it happens to someone else and not the Gators.