Much debate is an understatement on who should be NO.2 in the final Coaches and Harris Polls which we all should know by now. I am a guy that likes stats and numbers though. So I went to the USA Today website and made this simple chart of how the COACHES voted Florida and Michigan in the Final Coaches Poll.

There weren't any really big suprises really. Only a few. I will continue on with the discussion after this chart. I didn't list the coaches individually, but listed their vote for the team as a group by conference. So naturally, when you see 2 or 3 under the column of Florida and Michigan, then that's a no.2 vote by that coach, or no. 3 vote, respectively. OSU unanimously got all NO. 1 votes. No coach voted Florida or Michigan lower than 2 or 3. Here is the breakdown by conference posted Sunday Dec. 3rd, 2006:

CONFERENCE     FLORIDA                 MICHIGAN

  ACC                      2 2 2 2 2 2 2             3 3 3 3 3 3 3

BIG 10                   3 3 3 3 2                    2 2 2 2 3

BIG 12                                 3 2 2 2 3 2 2             2 3 3 3 2 3 3

SEC                        2 2 2 2 2 2 2             3 3 3 3 3 3 3

BIG EAST              3 2 2 3                       2 3 3 2

WAC                       2 2 2 2 2                    3 3 3 3 3

C-USA                    2 2 2 2 3 2                 3 3 3 3 2 3

PAC 10                   3 2 2 3 2 2                2 3 3 2 3 3  

SUN BELT              3 2 2 2                      2 3 3 3

MAC                        2 3 3 3 2                   3 2 2 2 3

MTN WEST            3 2 2 3                      2 3 3 2

INDEPENDENTS   2 3                            3 2

Like I said, no really big suprises. Note if you will though one Big Ten coach, Ron Zook of Illinios (former Florida coach) did give Florida the NO. 2 vote over Big Ten rival Michigan. Just food for thought. Not that it mattered.  Of course we all know by now that Jim Tressel, coach of The Ohio State Buckeyes did not cast any votes, therefore there were 62 coaches that voted.

Florida garnered 44 of the 62 NO. 2 votes, while Michigan was granted the other 18 NO.2 votes.

NOTABLES: The four Mountain West votes were split, as well as the two independent votes. Charlie Weis coach of Notre Dame cast his NO.2 vote for Michigan...no real big suprise. The ACC, SEC, and WAC swept the voters with all NO. 2 votes cast for Florida. The Coaches in the PAC-10 were 4-2 in favor of Florida.

There are other notable voting that stuck out at me. I will list a few here:

1. Howard Schnellenber coach at Florida Atlantic voted LSU no. 15 in the final voting! What did the Tigers do to him? lol

2.Mike Bellotti coach at Oregon has Wisconsin at no. 4 in his final voting. Interesting.

3.Bobby Bowden of Florida State still thinks USC is the best 2 loss team, even over one loss teams, he has them ranked no. 4 in his final poll. As do many other coaches I may add.

Now in light of this, Kirk Herbstreit, former OSU QB, now ESPN College Football Analyst, did have a valid argument in favor of Michigan. Not quoting him, but Michigan had not played in the last two weeks. He wondered how a Florida team that was ranked no. 4 in the nation following Michigan's loss at OSU, but still remained no. 2 in the polls following that loss, could leap-frog a team whose season was over.  His argument stated in paraphrase that If the OSU/UM game had been played this past Saturday, would the coaches still have voted the way they did, hence out of site, out of mind? And he went on to say that the coaches clearly did NOT want to see a rematch. I'm not saying I agree/disagree, but I will let you decide.

So, I began to look at how the coaches that voted Florida NO.2  and Michigan NO.3 on Dec. 3rd had voted after the Nov. 18th showdown, and then the following week.  However, it seems difficult for me at least to  locate how the coaches voted on Nov.  25, 2006. If someone could direct me to that link, it would be much appreciated.