Florida Gators vs. Alabama Crimson Tide. The No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the college football polls a week before the BCS computers start calculating ranks. One is the team that won the last BCS National Championship. The other is the team that would have won the BCS National Championship if it had not lost to the former. Who would have imagined the following season would shape up as it has, leaving both teams with paths leading back to a year ago and a repeat of the game that many say was the real national championship battle.

The Crimson Tide has rolled through the season so far, crushing teams left and right and looking like the most dominant team in football. Nick Saban, the most hated man in Louisiana after he bailed on LSU, went to Miami to coach the Dolphins before coming back to college football and taking a position coaching the evil enemies of the Cajun, is leading an Alabama team to a strong season and a collision course in the Southeastern Conference Championship against Florida.

The Florida Gators have crushed their cakewalk teams and struggled through a few others in their so far undefeated season, but riding their overwhelming No. 1 status from last year, they have maintained the top seed.

Many critics say the Crimson Tide is playing better football than the Gators, but when it boils down to it, both teams are winning every game against stiff competition. Urban Meyer has done what he’s always done and found a way to win and put himself and his team in the position they want to be to write their own future.

The teams have held their positions stronger than any other team that has held a top five ranking, and has continued the dominance of the SEC in conference strength. While the SEC lost two teams from the top 25 and the Big 12 now has more teams ranked, all of college football has seen that outside of the top three this season, the rankings seem to consist of teams drawn out of a hat. Texas is the only non SEC team that has been consistent enough in their play to earn their rank, and that may change next week with their biggest game of the season in the Red River Rivalry vs Oklahoma.

The Gators have played a much more climactic schedule in terms of story than the Crimson Tide has. Lane Kiffin provided many headlines and was on the receiving end of a stiff punch to the kisser in his failed prophecy of a victory in the Swamp this year, and even took shots at the Gators after the loss. Sadly for Lane Kiffin and the volunteers, a sick, underwhelming Gator performance was enough to beat a Tennessee team with nothing to lose. Then came the Tebow concussion and the two weeks of speculation on whether he’d play or not against LSU in a game that has decided the national champion for the last three seasons. Then Tebow came back, played a conservative version of wrecking ball and beat LSU by 10.

Alabama on the other hand has done a great job of negating everything the opposing team tries to throw at it while running them over with strong offensive performances. It is tough to say which team is necessarily better, because every week in college football is a completely different story in preparation and match ups, but we will see who represents the SEC in the BCS Championship game and whether it will be the Gators or the Crimson Tide hoisting the BCS Crystal Football in the end.