University Of Florida

Start with the grass stains. He left the field wearing the most splendid of grass stains, long swaths of green stretching over his shoulders, across his chest, down his back, the badge of a linebacker. Now check out the number. He is No. 15, but his jersey was tugged and twisted so much, sometimes it looked as if he were No. 11, sometimes 17, the wrinkles of a lineman. Finish with the face.

Was it really that bad? Didn't it all, in the end, after five months, a thousand howls and 34 bowls, work out for the conspiracy theorists, playoff advocates and, most of all, Florida? Gators Coach Urban Meyer, sleepless after a night of celebrating his team's Bowl Championship Series victory against Oklahoma, spent Friday morning posing with national title trophies presented by the USA Today voting coaches, the Associated Press and the Football Writers Assn. of America.

Basketball and football have never been so cozy at the University of Florida; the venues could practically chest bump. The Stephen C. O'Connell Center and the gates of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium are separated by about only 90 steps. What once was a two-sport chasm at Florida -- and other big-time college programs -- is being bridged by a burgeoning mutual admiration society.

It is \o7finally\f7 No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Florida tonight for the Bowl Championship Series national title in the game everyone outside of Michigan and Boise, Idaho, can't wait to see. It is finally time these schools met, at University of Phoenix Stadium, in the concluding act of an exciting season that ended with, among other bizarre things, Nick Saban going to Alabama.

What got into Florida, besides the first-rate coaching, all that halfback speed at linebacker and the fact that next-to-nobody thought the Gators could win? Did someone mix "flubber" into the Gatorade? Was it spillover from Idaho? Florida played Monday night as if it had found a Boise State playbook left behind from last week's Fiesta Bowl, contested on the same University of Phoenix Stadium field, and turned all that trickery on shellshocked Ohio State.

Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. In a desert that felt like a swamp, thousands of Florida fans greeted Ohio State with open arms. Then shut. Then open. Then shut. For three dizzying hours Monday, the Florida fans mimicked the chewing motion of their carnivorous reptilian mascot. It began as rhetoric. It ended as reality. It was a perfect embrace for plodding Midwesterners who were little more than, well, Gator bait.

One month after celebrating a national championship in football, the Florida Gators received more good news Wednesday when their incoming freshman class was judged No. 1 in the nation by several recruiting services. On Wednesday, the first day high school seniors could sign a letter of intent for football, Coach Urban Meyer came away with 27 signees. Scout.com had Florida No. 1 and Louisiana State No. 2. Rivals.com ranked Florida No. 1 and USC No. 2. PrepStar went with USC as their No. 1 class.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush was snubbed for an honorary degree at the University of Florida -- but he can still call himself an honorary alumnus. The Alumni Assn. Board of Directors passed a resolution to make Bush an honorary alumnus. The move came on the heels of a 38-28 Faculty Senate vote to deny Bush an honorary degree.

Arron Afflalo would never disrespect an opponent, so it was a difficult question as to which team he preferred to face next after the UCLA Bruins were done celebrating their advancement to Saturday's Final Four. Afflalo wouldn't know until about 18 hours later that he and the Bruins would get a rematch of the 2006 national championship game in which UCLA lost to Florida, 73-57.