Florida was the greatest college football team of this decade

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Florida football's rise to national prominence on the collegiate gridiron began in the 1980s, when the program earned its first SEC title (which was later stripped by sanctions) and reached No. 1 in the polls for the first time. Then came the 1990s, spearheaded by Steve Spurrier, which saw the Gators win their first national championship and their first five official SEC titles.

But it was not until the 2000s that the Orange and Blue reached its high-water mark, winning a pair of national titles, a trio of SEC Championship Trophies and the third Heisman winner in school history, Tim Tebow, who is arguably one of the greatest college football players of all time. It was during this stretch that CBS Sports writer Chip Patterson anointed Florida as the greatest college football team of the decade.

"It's really tempting to just name 'The SEC' as the best of the decade in the 2000s, especially given a more modern review of the decade, where Oklahoma and Texas are conference members," he begins. "Using the current membership, the SEC can lay claim to seven of the 10 national championships of this decade, with only the 2001 (Miami), 2002 (Ohio State) and 2004 (USC) seasons not ending with one of those southern-fried programs hoisting the BCS National Championship trophy. Oklahoma's only title of the 2000s came at the beginning with Bob Stoops' win in 2000, but thanks to Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, the decade would finish with a string of SEC kings."

The strength of the SEC certainly helps the Gators in the debate, though the competition even within the conference was stiff — especially with the LSU Tigers making a strong case with their own level of dominance.

"And it really is in that Florida-LSU debate that we find ourselves trying to identify one team as the decade's best. Nick Saban got things started in Baton Rouge and Les Miles added another ring in 2007, and we have given credit for a program getting multiple titles under different coaches in the same decade. But to truly extend the parameters to the end of the decade, the Gators can claim Steve Spurrier's last SEC Championship from 2000 and carry that success through two-time champion Tim Tebow, who led the Gators to No. 3 overall with a 13-1 record in 2009. With two national championships, three conference championships and five SEC Championship Game appearances in a decade when the league ascended to the top of the sport, Florida gets to take the honor as the team of the decade."

Of course, the 2000s were not all rainbows and sunshine for Florida, as the decade began with the departure of Spurrier and a tumultuous Ron Zook tenure sandwiched between him and Meyer. But at the end of the day, UF had the strongest resume out of a rock-solid group of eligible contenders for Patterson's designation.

"It is admittedly showing some late-decade bias, because the early part of the decade saw the Gators take a dip under Ron Zook while USC, Oklahoma, Texas and Miami were very much the entrenched powers of the era. But a slight step back for USC and Miami later in the decade proved to be tiebreakers, making Oklahoma and Texas the most appropriate squads for the honorable mention."

And so there you have it — all of the reasons why the Florida Gators had the best college football program of the opening decade of the 2000s. Hopefully, the Swamp will once again become the center stage of the sport in the near future.

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida was the greatest college football team of this decade

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