Walden makes his point for Gators at No. 1

Jim Walden is no guerrilla. He wasn’t trying to bring down the BCS or subvert the polls. He is anti-playoff and pro-bowl.

We thought he might be trying to generate conversation for his new radio show, but damned if “Walden and Friends” didn’t take Sunday night off.

But no, he insisted. He was only exercising his conscience – which is more than you can say for Jim Tressel.

And so Jim Walden voted for Florida.

No. 1.

“What,” raged USA Today, “was Jim Walden thinking?”

Cackled Walden, “If you want to know the truth, I think I’m the smartest guy in America today.”

If you didn’t wake up Monday morning screeching about the Bowl Championship Series and the final reckoning of the two teams who will play for college football’s national championship, don’t worry – there were a dozen obsessives happy to screech in your place. If only the outrage could heat our homes, though surely Avista would find a way to hike the rates anyway.

This year, USC was slotted to face undefeated Ohio State in the title game, to be held in Glendale, Ariz., on the eve of the basketball Final Four, or thereabouts. But the Trojans soiled themselves against rival UCLA, and the likelihood of a pointless rematch with Michigan – a solid No. 3 in the BCS math last week – increased. But that was before more than a third of the voters in the Harris and ESPN polls, the base of the BCS pyramid, leapfrogged Florida past Michigan in the last balloting and into the Glendale game.

God bless them, every one.

And then there was magus who decided Florida deserved a bump ahead of the Buckeyes.

Walden, the retired coach who does color – it’s more of a rainbow, actually – on Washington State radio broadcasts, votes in the Harris poll, and when he looked into his “heart of hearts” he decided the Gators were simply more deserving.

“Forget No. 2,” Walden said. “Why are we debating Florida and Michigan? Michigan was the No. 2 team in a three-team conference.

“You look at Florida and the schedule they played and compare it to Ohio State and what they played and it’s a joke. Ohio State hasn’t proved anything.”

Walden might be a little over the top on that, but the top has a point.

The Buckeyes have played just two teams in the current Top 25 – Michigan and No. 16 Texas. The Gators have played four, losing to No. 10 Auburn. Ten Florida opponents are bowl-bound. In the Big Ten, Ohio State didn’t have to play Wisconsin (11-1) or Purdue (8-5); in the SEC, the Gators got to skip Ole Miss and Mississippi State, a combined 7-17.

Of the six computers used in the BCS mensuration, four chart strength of schedule – and Florida’s average rank is 13th. Ohio State’s is 38th.

“The Big Ten is as weak as it’s been in 25 years,” proclaimed Walden. “Everybody’s fallen in love with Ohio State, but they’ve played one of the softest schedules of any No. 1 team I can remember. They had all summer to get ready for Texas and then they had 11 weeks to get ready for Michigan.”

Lest you think the old Mississippi gambler is just an SEC apologist…

“Oh, all they do is whine,” Walden said. “Every one of those schools thinks they invented the game and don’t get any respect. Even so, Florida deserves to be No. 1.”

That stance made him a target of ridicule on 99 out of 100 radio shows Monday – though if you think the WASL is flawed at gauging intelligence, don’t try the AM dial. Never mind that the whole point of a poll is to account for difference of opinion. The computers, too. One machine had Virginia Tech fifth, another had the Hokies 21st. Howard Schnellenberger voted Oklahoma 18th; Steve Spurrier had the Sooners fourth.

Jim Walden only disagreed with everybody by one spot.

Well, not everybody. We don’t know how Tressel would have voted because the Ohio State coach abstained, citing conflict of interest.

Conflict of courage is more like it.

“I never backed out,” Walden laughed. “You’ve to have some hair on …”

OK, moving on – doesn’t this yearly hoohah just scream for the playoff system, even if college presidents would give up their stadium suites before that would happen?

“I like it the way it is,” Walden insisted. “Here’s what would happen if you had a four-team playoff: you’d have teams No. 5, 6 and 7 – all with the same record as No. 4, or better – raising holy hell.”

And the same thing if you were to go to eight, or 16 – or 64. Or don’t you remember what happens on Selection Sunday in March?

“I might go for a four-team playoff,” Walden said, “if the media would swear an oath not to criticize it for five years. The first time Michigan’s fifth, the newspaper guy in Detroit has to shut up.”

Oh, right. What the hell is Jim Walden thinking, anyway?