The final votes are in and to the shock and dismay of approximately zero people, the Florida Gators are college football’s No. 1 team. The undefeated Utah Utes are No. 2.

The Gators received 48 first-place votes and 1,606 points in the poll released early Friday, after they beat Oklahoma 24-14 in the BCS national title game.

Utah, the only team in major college football to go undefeated this season, got 16 first-place votes and 1,519 points.

“I thought we had an outside chance,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said in a telephone interview with the AP. “There was enough national sentiment, I thought we might get the No. 1 slot. It wasn’t to be.”

Florida won its third AP national championship and second in the last three seasons. Steve Spurrier and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel led the Gators to the 1996 title.

No. 3 USC received one first-place vote. Texas was No. 4, and will have to settle with finishing ahead of fifth-ranked Oklahoma.

The Utes from the Mountain West Conference swept through their regular season, while Florida and Alabama from the SEC, Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and Southern California from the Pac-10, jockeyed for position in the national title chase.

The Mountain West does not have an automatic bid to the BCS — it’s not considered a strong enough league to deserve one — but the Utes earned their way in.

Utah was seventh in the final regular-season poll, but that perfect record looked much more impressive after the Utes beat Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl last week.

The Pac-10 should do the right thing and bring Utah and BYU (or TCU?) into its conference. Then they could have a conference championship game and Utah and BYU (or TCU?) could show how good they really are.

Imagine if the NFL had the same system college football has. We wouldn’t have had the opportunity to witness one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time when the Giants beat the Patriots last year, because the Giants would have been ranked No. 6 in the polls.

Kevin Blackstone of AOL SPORTS writes that this year’s Super Bowl matchup will look awfully familiar to last year’s title game. Blackstone writes that the most likely Super Bowl matchup will again be Giants-Patriots.

For starters, it is difficult to pick against a team in the Patriots that lost just one outing all of last season, that final game. It is all but forgotten that they lost perfection only by the margin of a field goal, 17-14.

The Giants don’t have the league’s second-easiest schedule. They aren’t even considered as the Patriots are the best team in their conference, or their division. That designation was reserved this offseason for Dallas.

But the Cowboys haven’t won a playoff game since the last millennium and their new quarterback sensation Tony Romo seems to have as big a knack for blowing the big game as he does hanging with the newest bimbo. And all of a sudden, his receiving corps anchored by the thirtysomething T.O. is questionable with the waiving of veteran Terry Glenn due to a gimpy knee. Their coach Wade Phillips isn’t to be confused with Jimmy Johnson either.

Good points, but as of right now I like the Cowboys, Saints and even the Eagles better than the Giants in the NFC. New York lost a lot of talent in the offseason and eventually it might catch up to them. And while it’s hard not to like the Pats’ chances, the AFC is absolutely stacked with talent (Jaguars, Colts, Chargers, Steelers, Browns). Both teams have tough roads to get back to the Super Bowl, but I like Blackstone’s bold prediction.