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The Florida Gators 2009 odds are quite good, perhaps better than any other team in college football history coming into the new season. They would pay nearly even odds for winning the 2010 BCS Championship or $150 for every $100 bet at SportsInteraction.com.
The Gators made history this weekend by becoming the most overwhelming preseason No. 1 in the history of the media poll.
The previous highest percentage of first-place votes for the AP preseason poll, which started in 1950, was 95.4 percent for USC in 2007. Those Trojans got 62 of 65 first-place votes -- and didn't play for the national title.
Ten preseason No. 1s have won the national championship. If the Gators can become the 11th, they will have put together one of the great runs in college football history.
"There's a lot of guys getting patted on the back and being told how good they are," Coach Urban Meyer said in a recent telephone interview. "Their only focus is on survival to the next day and working hard in practice.
"I don't want them to even think about that kind of stuff. Our goal is to get to Atlanta" for the Southeastern Conference championship game.
The Gators were made a -73 favorite to beat hapless Charleston Southern their first game of the season.
Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
