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Head to Head

Oddsmakers may crunch stats like rushing yards and quarterback ratings, but we've used a slightly less scientific method to analyze tonight's matchup between the Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

By Jennifer Decamp and Suzette Moyer
Published January 8, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Brian Cassella] The Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes will meet in the desert for the national championship in Glendale, Ariz., on Monday.

The stadium

• The Buckeyes played their first football game in the Horseshoe in 1922. Since then, the stadium, which is shaped like a good luck charm, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
• Florida fans spend their Saturdays at the Swamp (officially named Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field), where, as the saying goes, "Only the Gators come out alive." Luckily, this is one swamp that won't be paved over to make way for the state symbol of commerce: the strip mall.

Advantage: UF. Just the name is enough.

Fan fashion

• Scarlet and gray were chosen by three OSU students in a lecture room on campus because "it was a pleasing combination." Consider how Les Wexner, Ohio State alum and founder of The Limited, Express, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, The White Barn Candle Company and Henri Bendel, uses scarlet and gray in his stores' skirts, shirts, pants, bras and lingerie.
• Florida's colors, orange and blue, are complementary according to many color theory books. However, think Howard Johnson's, the N.Y. Mets, Cingular, Pippi Longstocking.

Advantage: OSU. Only clowns and Florida fans wear orange and blue together.

From one "nut" to another

• The Ohio State Buckeyes are named after the Buckeye tree. Although buckeye nuts are useless, the Buckeye delicacy, which looks just like the nut, is a round peanut butter ball dipped in chocolate. No one can eat just one.
• Darrell Hammond, famous for his Saturday Night Live impressions of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Al Gore, graduated from Florida with a degree in broadcasting before heading to New York to start his career. He is the longest-running cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Advantage: Dead even

Notable Smiths

• Troy Smith: Ohio State QB who won this year's Heisman Trophy.
• Emmitt Smith: Former Florida running back, NFL leading rusher with the Dallas Cowboys and Dancing With the Stars winner.

Advantage: UF. The Heisman winner may be poised to be tonight's man of the moment, but Gator grad Emmitt Smith is THE MAN. The former Super Bowl MVP proved last fall that wearing rainbow-colored satin shirts and gold shoes while waltzing on the dance floor could be just as sexy as being clad in pads and cleats on artificial grass.

Average October game day temperatures

• Columbus: high 67 degrees; low 43 degrees
• Gainesville: high 81 degrees; low 59 degrees

Advantage: Pick your poison. Think tank tops and sweat-streaked face paint in Gainesville, or parkas and earmuffs in Columbus, where 50 degrees can feel more like 35 by the fourth quarter during night games.

Filmed on location

• Columbus' big city blues gave life to Little Man Tate and Traffic.
• Meanwhile, Gainesville's small-town charm provided key scenes for Doc Hollywood, Parenthood, Just Cause and Devil's Advocate.

Advantage: OSU. This is almost too easy. Yes, Doc Hollywood (most of the exterior shots filmed in nearby historic Micanopy) oozed Southern charm and featured TV's favorite Republican (Michael J. Fox's Alex P. Keaton) taking on a more grownup role. But when compared to Traffic's 10 award nominations (five for Golden Globes and five for Oscars) and more impressive six wins, Columbus wins hands-down.

Innovative inventions

• OSU alum and patent king Melvin de Groote (he held 925 patents at his death) created an emulsion that helps chocolate stick to ice cream, which indirectly led to favorites such as Eskimo Pies and Klondike bars.
• "The legend was born in 1965, in the storied Swamp of Florida . . ." intones sportscaster Keith Jackson, the narrator of the Gatorade Origins commercial. The sports drink created at the university for the Gator football team now is on the sidelines at most major sporting events.

Advantage: UF. Tonight's winners are not going to eat ice cream bars on the field, they're going to dump the ceremonial cooler of Gatorade over the coach's head.

Dashboard dining

• Columbus has Dave Thomas and Wendy's.
• Gainesville has Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q.

The Tillmans may have opened their first Sonny's a year before Dave Thomas' square hamburgers found a public following. But the 99-cent menu at Wendy's has been keeping poor college students fed for years.

Advantage: OSU. "Where's the beef?" Definitely in Columbus.

Artistic expression

• In 1964, Life magazine asked this question about OSU grad Roy Lichtenstein: "Is he the worst artist in the U.S.?" But even Life couldn't deter the American pop artist, whose comic-style paintings grace gallery walls worldwide.
• For more than 20 years, Florida students have painted their declarations of love, political viewpoints and party plans at the 34th Street Wall in Gainesville. The wall also contains a permanent tribute to the five victims of the 1990 Gainesville murders.

Advantage: UF. For giving the community its say.

Native music

• Dubbed "The Best Damn Band in the Land" (TBDBITL), OSU's band is famous for its Script Ohio, where the band's members spell out Ohio - in cursive - a tradition dating to 1936. Dotting the "i" remains a privilege only granted to a sousaphone player or people "near and dear" to the band and university, including Woody Hayes, Jack Nicklaus, heavyweight champ Buster Douglas and Bob Hope.
• Florida's spirited "Pride of the Sunshine" marching band doesn't hold a candle to famous Gainesville musician Tom Petty. An urban legend exists that the lyrics of Petty's hit American Girl allude to a coed who committed suicide by jumping from her Beaty Tower dorm room, but Petty continues to deny this rumor.

Advantage: OSU. Not only do they dot the "i," but they do it with a flourish that includes a high kick, turn and deep bow.

Sources: www.osu.edu, www.ufl.edu, www.gatorade.com, www.weather.com, www.imdb.com, www.wendys.com, www.sonnysbbq.com

An assortment of Times Gator and Buckeye alums contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 8, 2007, 11:37:07]