Ole’ Miss beat Florida on its home turf this year. So what? Clearly the Gators are over it and their 63-5 trouncing of Kentucky on Saturday went a long way in proving that.

The BCS standings say that UF is the 10th best team in the nation, but nobody should buy that. On neutral ground, the Gators beat half the teams ranked ahead of them (I’ll leave it up to you to determine which of those teams you think they’re better than) in the polls, and in Gainesville they probably defeat most of the teams ranked ahead of them.

This thought process isn’t based solely on what they did to Kentucky on Saturday either. The Wildcats didn’t stand much of a chance going into the game, although their defense has shown improvement this year. No, this is based on the fact that the Gators still own some of the best talent in the country and are one of the few programs that can say they have a complete football team. Their loss to Ole’ Miss was an aberration and obviously the defeat not only has motivated them, but also has re-focused them as well.

It’s hard to fathom Texas and/or Alabama losing this season, but it’s even harder to believe that the BCS Championship won’t feature two one-loss teams with how crazy the season has been this year. That said, there’s no reason to think the Gators can’t run the table with the way they’ve handled LSU and Kentucky the past two weeks. Therefore, Florida’s a program that pundits should start paying attention to again as true title contenders.

As I’m sure some of you were this past Saturday, I sat on my couch in utter amazement at what I was watching go down in college football.

Maryland beat Clemson?

Navy is on top of Wake Forest??

Mississippi might knock off Florida???

USC lost to Oregon State????

Okay, so we knew that last outcome because it happened on Thursday night. And we shouldn’t have been that surprised when upsets happen in college football because, well, upsets happen in college football.

But the reason they’re happening this year is more prevalent than in years past: From smaller to big-time programs, the talent level is better across the nation.

Ole’ Miss isn’t afraid to walk into Gainesville these days because they have players like Jevan Snead and Shay Hodge that can compete with Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin. The Beavers could care less that the Trojans are the top ranked program in the nation not just because they beat USC in Corvallis two years ago, but also because quarterback Lyle Moevao and freshman running back Jacquizz Rodgers can play for just about any team in the nation.

Granted, Florida is going to beat Mississippi on most Saturdays and that’s why the Gators were No. 5 in the nation and the Rebels weren’t anywhere near the top 25 coming into weekend. Voters are often clueless, but they’re competent enough to recognize that the Gators and Trojans have more overall depth and talent than the Rebels and Beavers. But the fact of the matter is that the mid-level programs have caught up dramatically over the years.