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Florida coach Dan Mullen said whether his team could reach the college football playoffs with two losses was ultimately out of his control, but that didn’t stop him from projecting confidence ahead of a showdown with the Alabama’s No. 1 in the SEC Championship Game.
“We’ll think about it on Saturday night after we win,” Mullen said Thursday of the potential debate.
Florida just lost a home loss to an unranked LSU last weekend, but the Gators only dropped a spot to 7th in the CFP standings.
“I think it showed respect for us and for this league, the quality of the opponents in this league, the grind and the requirement to play,” Mullen said of the standings. “This is our 11th SEC game in a season. I think it’s definitely a challenge. Other conferences haven’t experienced this.”
Mullen was careful to say he didn’t hit other teams, but it was yet another veiled shot against the Big Ten and the Ohio State No.4, who has played and won five games until now this season.
After Saturday’s loss, Mullen felt that “the best thing to do would have been to play fewer games because you seem to be rewarded for not playing this year.”
Florida’s only other loss was to No. 5 Texas A&M on the College Station Road.
“I mean obviously I’m not hitting other teams or other schools,” Mullen said Thursday, “but a team that played [six or seven games] will be fresher, healthier at the end of the season, and will likely have more depth than a team in Game 11, who are trying to have to pass early in the week because … the guys are high. You try to keep everyone healthy.
“I think anyone who knows football understands that. People who really know football understand it. That would be my guess. I don’t know. That would be a question for the committee.”
For his part, Alabama coach Nick Saban has avoided the debate over whether the SEC deserves two teams in the playoffs, regardless of the outcome of the conference championship.
Texas A&M, which plays unranked Tennessee on Saturday, is also part of the conversation.
“Dude, I don’t really like to speculate on things like that,” Saban said. “The thing we want to try to do is play our best so that we can determine our destiny and our future based on our performance on the pitch, without having to leave it to other people who have a very, very difficult – especially in a year like this where not everyone played the same number of games, played non-conference games in most cases.
“It’s a very difficult task. We understand that. But we also respect the people who have to make it happen. We just hope we play well enough to have the opportunity to play in the playoffs.”
The CFP will announce its final ranking on Sunday (noon ET, ESPN).
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