As the SEC championship game rapidly approaches, one of the things that caught my attention is something that actually happened last week. I heard about Urban Meyer’s comments from last week in passing a couple of times, either on TV or radio (or both), but hadn’t yet looked them up to see exactly what all he said. Basically, he was already lobbying last week for Florida to be in the national championship game if they win out, at least ahead of Michigan. He was objecting to the idea of a OSU-Michigan rematch primarily, but inserted his own team along with USC as the only valid considerations were they to remain one-loss teams.

There’s one major problem with Meyer’s comments - timing. At the time he was saying this, Florida had 2 games remaining. First, at Florida State, which - despite how bad of a season FSU has had by their usual standards - was an in-state “rivalry” game on the road. You can’t assume. Okay, Florida did win the game this past Saturday, although they did so only by a touchdown and they have not been particularly impressive in the last month or so. They also, as Dennis Dodd points out in this article (and I have as well), lost to an Auburn team that didn’t even score an offensive touchdown in the game but still managed 27 points against the Gators. Taking care of business at Auburn, where Arkansas and Georgia both embarrassed the Tigers, would’ve been a good start to a national title run.

The other remaining game is, of course, the SEC championship game, in which they’ll face Arkansas, a team that has continued to improve for the last two months. Despite a close loss to LSU (who didn’t give them 5 turnovers like they did Florida), it’s obvious that Arkansas is playing the better football of the two teams. That means little coming into the game - games aren’t won by who’s playing best coming in, but by who plays best on that day. And that’s the point - Florida, beginning with the coach, should be concentrating on playing the next game, not on who’s going to be playing in a game over a month from now, a game they definitely won’t be playing in if they lose.

I didn’t hear Mike & Mike’s “Just Shut Up” award this week, but I have to assume Meyer’s comments were at least nominated, even if he didn’t win it. He certainly would have been a worthy winner, and I know I would have voted for him.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume USC loses to UCLA, which is the only way Florida and Michigan can remain in the discussion. If Florida beats Arkansas, then Meyer can talk all he wants and people might be inclined to listen to him. He can go on and on about the SEC and how the champion deserves a shot over a Michigan team that didn’t win their conference (even if they may be the second best team, which, of course, is debatable.) He can sound off to his heart’s desire about Florida’s schedule and why they deserve a date with Ohio State. But until he and his team finish the season with no more losses, he needs to shut the hell up and start preparing his team.

Often when you see people out there lobbying for themselves, especially prematurely, it comes back to bite them. Even if I wasn’t an Arkansas fan, I’d be pulling for the Hogs this weekend. I’d love nothing more (well, except the win) than to see Urban have to answer questions about whether or not he was too focused on the BCS title game instead of the SEC title game. I’d look forward to his explanation as to why he failed to have his team ready to play, lost the game, and now has to play in a non-BCS bowl. Hey, Urban, just shut up!