From the nanosecond the Big 10 made the announcement that it was including Nebraska, I knew the SEC would go to 16 teams. Not 14, but 16. Think: would the commissioner of a league that won (at the time) four straight BCS Championships just sit back and allow this? When Auburn won the SEC's fifth straight, it became official: the SEC was going to go to 16 teams.

Now, these are just rumors, albeit strong ones. But let's just say it's true, and official.

What does it mean to the Gators?

Let's go negatives first, and save the positives for last.

1) Recruiting in the state of Florida

This is a gigantic blow for the Gators' in state recruiting. Often, a decision for an uncommitted 17 year old kid from the Sunshine State comes down to wanting to play in the ACC or SEC, and of course the bigger stage is in the SEC. And Urban Meyer took advantage of that, pounding the Seminoles 5 straight times and then hitting the recruits with "do you want to play on the big stage?" Combine that with the bludgeonings Tim Tebow handed Bobby Bowden and it was an easy call.

Now, though, Florida will HAVE to beat FSU to get recruits. The line "it was a bad year and now we're starting over" might work this year and maybe next year but not for long. With the conference advantage now gone, the only way to really show recruits that Florida is better is to hammer Florida State with regularity. And that won't be easy.

2) More of a year long grind/injury risk

You'll never hear me saying what a tough out of conference schedule Florida has. Jeremy Foley is a wimp and will never schedule anybody not named Florida State (and Miami once) that's any good. Now, though, the Gators will likely have to play 10 conference games, as opposed to the 8 plus Florida State. As we saw in 2008, any one conference game could turn into a loss. The addition of an extra game increases the risk of a loss, decreases the chance of an unbeaten national champion, and increases the injury risk.

3) End of the Florida-Auburn and Florida-Miami rivalries

Once upon a time, Florida vs. Auburn was one of the fiercest and most evenly matched rivalries in the nation. The Tigers hold a 42-38 lead and many of those games hurt more than just one loss. The Tigers had a knack of beating the Gators by a field goal, as recently as 2007. But after 2002, these teams stopped playing each other every year and just played twice every five years.

The Gators and the Hurricanes also had an annual (but meaner) rivalry that was destroyed when the Gators got weak with their schedule and replaced the U with Montana State (shameful, nothing less). Steve Spurrier wanted them back but it could not be done with the SEC expanding to 12 teams. The two teams met sporadically (twice in bowl games, twice in the Swamp, and once in the Orange Bowl, and are scheduled to meet again in 2013... but who knows?)

Now, with the new additions, instead of the teams playing more often, they will play even less often, since the division alignments likely will not pair the Gators and Auburn together. The teams might play once every eight years or so. It also means the definite end of Florida-Miami unless they both make it to a bowl game. It's a shame, really as these used to be intense matchups and now they will be defunct.

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But there are positives, too:

1) Out of state recruiting

The Gators already had a strong hold on Texas since Will Muschamp signed with Florida. But now they will get their hands on the St. Louis area, one of the hottest big cities in the Midwest along with Chicago. Kids in St. Louis will now have a lot more access to watch SEC games, which gives Muschamp and the Gators a bigger audience to impress. And of course South Carolina has the same problem with Clemson that Florida has with FSU joining the conference, which can work to everybody else's advantage.

2) Florida-FSU rivalry will become more intense

Aside from in state bragging rights and recruiting, this rivalry means nothing. It doesn't determine which team will play for the SEC Championship, it doesn't determine bowl games, or anything like that. This is why I consider Florida-Georgia to be a bigger rivalry. Now, Florida-FSU will be even nastier. Watch out for plenty of the chippy behavior that has caused enough flags to cover a field during Florida-Georgia games.

3) More firepower, more BCS champions

These are four historically good, but not fantastic teams joining the conference. Winning a 16 team conference will have even more power with the pollsters, who cannot turn away a one loss team from the SEC even with 12 teams. That power grows a lot with each team in, and more conference games means more chances to impress the pollsters as well.

Recently, I broke down the signature points and parts of the last decade.

So now let's go to the next decade and take a look there.

I'm looking into the crystal ball that Florida won three years ago and I see...

1) College football will become a 5-team game.

5 teams will dominate the game- Florida State, Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma and Florida. These teams are a mix of rich historical programs and hot recently (recently will fluctuate- FSU is hot based on last year, while Florida is hot from winning 2 BCS titles in the past 5 years). These are pretty much the top 5 places to be right now for recruits, and knowing that they all have young, hot coaches and talent wants to go there, they will have the most success.

2) Many other major programs will sink to the bottom for violations

USC, Ohio State and Auburn, among others, appear to be in neck deep with the NCAA. I'm expecting the NCAA to hammer OSU after the most recent findings. And it wouldn't surprise me if something else was discovered in the Cam Newton scam. Something new seems to surface every month with him. USC may not be done, either. Kiffin and Orgeron are the worst with violations (although they may still believe Urban Meyer owns that distinction) and it wouldn't surprise me to see them take additional punishment. Due to all the punishments, these three will fall to the cellar of college football.

3) Urban Meyer will return to coaching

With every passing day, Ohio State seems more and more in trouble. Since Jim Tressel is the man to blame for that, he may be kicked out. And we all know it- Urban Meyer has a special place in his heart for OSU. The fact that he had a mild heart attack following the annihilation of the Buckeyes in the BCS Championship game slams that point home. And real tired he is- working with ESPN, traveling around the country, having his own TV show. Maybe there's less stress, but not a lot less work. He just couldn't watch Addazio mismanage his team anymore. If he's not Ohio State's next coach, he'll be in charge of somebody by 2020.

4) Steve Addazio will be fired within three seasons

Usually, with non BCS conferences, tolerance for losing is much higher, but I believe that he will be SO bad that Temple will have no choice. Let's look at it like this- he's too selfish and arrogant to let somebody else run his offense. We've seen that as Gator fans. We've also seen what happens when his offense is run using incredible talent (Tebow, Cooper, Hernandez, Nelson, Demps, Rainey etc.), what happens when it's run with good talent (Brantley, Thompson, Hines, Hammond, Demps, Rainey, Debose, etc.), and now we're about to see what happens when he runs it with no talent (at least relative to the SEC). It won't be pretty. Cue the Ron Zook thoughts, 100 times over. This will not be pretty.

5) Kick blocking and speed will play more important roles

Urban Meyer left behind two major things- build a team on speed and block kicks. Get the fastest guys to play for you and you can't fail. With a good conditioning coach, strength can be acquired. Speed cannot be. So it's vital to recruit the fastest kids, because you can push them in the weight room and they'll get bigger. Meyer also showed what happens when you block a kick- victory. Maybe it's a fluke, but in games UF blocked a kick, they were 16-0 under Meyer. Look for teams to copy these tactics in the future, and look for more speed and blocks.

6) Florida-FSU rivalry will return to the national spotlight

Steve Spurrier vs. Bobby Bowden was a classic. Every time the teams played. Even if the score was as lopsided as 52-20 in a national championship. The two teams were always highly ranked and the game meant something nationally as well as in the state. Look for more of that in the future, with slightly better sportsmanship and class by both teams. Both teams definitely appear poised to make a jump to the top very soon, and since they happen to be in each other's way, this game will get more views than a Justin Bieber concert.

7) Oregon will reign as king of the Pac-12 and will control the West

The way Chip Kelly is headed, Oregon might not just own the West, but own the country pretty soon. He gets to select who he wants, not the other way around, with recruits. Such is the power of winning successive Pac-10 (or Pac-12) championships. See USC in the previous decade. So weak is the western half of the country that Oregon and Boise State are the only nationally respected teams. Arizona is going down. USC is in shambles. TCU just joined an even more shameful conference than the one it was just in. Utah has lost the last of Meyer's guys a few years ago, and have not been relevant since.

8) The Big East will collapse and realignment Part II will occur

West Virginia and Louisville have a simple option to avoid disaster. Get out. And take the new guy (TCU) with you. One of you can take TCU to the Big 12 and the other one can join newly independant Boise State, Notre Dame, BYU, Army and Navy as independants. Why WVU and 'Ville? Because those are the only two anybody respects. Seriously: the Big Least lost their last two BCS Bowl games 48-20 and 51-24. Who CAN respect that? Everybody else should just go to the FCS. The fact that an Addazio led Gator team beat a USF team that was a field goal away from beating the champions of that conference and winning it themselves by a score of 38-14 proves that the Big Least is not worthy of playing with the Big Boys. Other than that, though, I think the conferences are pretty much set.

9) College football will create a playoff

It's easy. Kill the rediculous games (Florida-Citadel if you need clarification), and play 10 regular season games. 8 conference games (or 9 for the Big 12) one other must be against a BCS team, and the last one must be an FBS team (the Big 12 can eliminate the BCS team if they choose). 16 teams in the playoffs, selected by the BCS. Play the games at teams' home sites and the championship games will rotate between the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Cotton Bowl. Punish the Fiesta Bowl for what they did forever and restore the greatness that the Cotton Bowl once had. If the bowls don't like it, they can choose to whine and complain about it, or they can propose that two teams play in a neutral site at their stadiums during the season. For example, the Gator Bowl can offer Florida and Georgia to play in the Gator Bowl every year, and they'll get money that way. The Capital One Bowl can offer to hold Florida-Miami every year, and then hey- problem solved. UF-Miami becomes a regular season again in the process. Or if they don't want to play every year, they can offer Georgia and FSU to play every other year. Or something like that. It's going to happen, once somebody with power gets the idea.

10) Florida becomes QB U

With Charlie Weis, Florida will definitely get good QB play. But what not everybody knows is that the chances are good that he'll be here for awhile. He has said that he doesn't plan on being a head coach again, his son is attending UF, and he'd like a fresh start. Look for Jeff Driskel to become a star after Brantley leaves, and Driskel's successor as well, and so on.

Gators fans, let's all collectively admit it.

We are spoiled.

Never before in history have we so dominantly owned Georgia, Tennessee, FSU, and the majority of the SEC all at the same time. Of course, this may have something to do with two of our previous three head coaches being fantastic, but....

Think about this. We've won six straight against Tennessee. 18 of the past 21 against Georgia. 24 straight against Kentucky. 22 in a row against Vanderbilt. We'd won 6 straight against FSU until Steve Addazio's suckage finally caught up with us against a rival.

Have any of you ever seen this before?

I haven't.

Not even Bear Bryant could do this to his rivals.

But this is so incredible that it can't possibly last forever.

So again, and I'm going to keep harping on this all year, have some patience with Muschamp. If Florida loses 5 games this year, including 2 against rivals, then just relax. Even Meyer's first year wasn't so good. But the next four were, which is going to leave us with rediculous if not unreasonable demands for Muschamp.

Muschamp will get it figured out, I know he will.

Put it this way- if I can have a year's patience with Steve Addazio... who turned out to be... you know... have at least a years worth of patience with Muschamp.

OK, we all know who we lost to last year, and we all know who our rivals are.

But these ten teams have done something to insult Gator foorball in some way. Although some people have forgotten, I haven't and I'm sure some other Gator fans haven't either.

Florida doesn't play all of them next year, but when they do, they need to lay a beatdown on them.

As the 2011 team takes shape, and I know who's won starting jobs, who tore his ACL and will miss the season, etc., I will preview each of these games from a football standpoint.

So here goes, ranging from (10) least necessary to (1) desperately needs a whooping.

10) Florida Atlantic

Next Meeting: 2011 @Gainesville

What? FAU??? They're harmless!!! What have they done? Well, nothing on their own, but their coach, Howard Schnellenberger, once ran it up on Florida when he was coaching Miami (the south Florida version) because the Gator fans pelted his team with oranges. Why did they throw oranges? Schnellenberger flipped off the crowd and did the Gator Chomp. What better way to begin the Will Muschamp era with a blowout win?

9) Miami(FL)

Next Meeting: 2013 @Miami

The battle for Sunshine State Supremacy will be in the Orange Bowl (or wherever the Canes play) in 2013. Let's see if Will Muschamp can embarrass one of the few nearby teams that he doesn't have some kind of relationship with. Jeff Driskel will be a junior then and he'll hopefully have a great grip on Charlie Weis's new offense. Plus, it's essential for recruiting. And, you know, they're a rival who has embarrassed UF in the past (see Schnellenberger).

8) Alabama

Next Meeting: 2011 @Gainesville

The Gators have an awful taste still in their mouths from the past two times they've played the Crimson Tide and they want a shot at revenge. They'll get their chance in the Swamp with a rare rebuilding Bama team that has lost 19 of its 22 starters from the 2009 BCS Championship team. This game should be called the "Talent-Developing Bowl" for obvious reasons- which coaching staff does more with its players?

7) Ohio State

Next Meeting: ???

Who knows when (or if) these two scools will meet again. One thing I know is that the Buckeyes suddenly think they own the SEC because they beat an error-prone Arkansas team in the Sugar Bowl. I'm sick and tired of them running their mouths about how they would have actually tried had they known that Florida was actually decent. I hope Jeremy Foley quits being a ({}) and schedules them, anytime, anywhere. Let's see how good they really are.

6) FSU

Next Meeting: 2011 @Gainesville

Jimbo Fisher and Will Muschamp co-own a beach house. Maybe the two of them should have a deal where the winner of the UF-FSU game wins the beach house for the next year. Whatever they do, Muschamp does not strike me as the type of guy that will put more value into friendships than into winning. His name is Coach Boom, right? They disrespected the Gators last year by cutting the head off a toy Gator right for the world to see (newsflash, that was UF's idea by chomping the head off a toy Indian and carrying it around). But they have to come to the Swamp this year. Ooooooooh. This should be good.

5)Auburn

Next Meeting: 2011 @Auburn

Even if Newton doesn't return, this is still the resurrection of an old rivalry game that needs to be taken seriously. Wes Byrum, who is also gone, beat Florida with a walk-off field goal in 2007 and mocked the Gator crowd with, of course, the Chomp. Plus, they handed Florida their only defeat in 2006. It's up the 2011 version of Gator football to avenge that. Let's see if Will Muschamp can do what Urban Meyer never did- beat Auburn.

4)Georgia

Next Meeting: 2011 @Jacksonville, FL

Muschamp went there. We know that. We hate them. We know that too. So why do we owe them an especially good lickin? Because we always do, and also because Todd Grantham thought he was funny by telling Chas Henry that "you're gonna f*ckin choke!!!". In fact, I'm still not sure we're even for the 2007 Dunce Dunce Revolution the Bulldogs staged. A quick way for Muschamp to get on the Gators fans' good side: put your relationship with UGA down and crush them!!!

3)Southern Cal

Next Meeting: ???

Like Ohio State, this matchup may not happen again for an eternity. But Lane Kiffin still has yet to receive the "welcome to head coaching in college football" beatdown that he asked for the day that he was announced as head coach. Florida can't draw them in a bowl game unless it's a BCS game, which could happen, but not likely. It's not even a possibility until 2012, when USC's bowl ban is lifted. I want to trounce Lane Kiffin so badly, but I think this is going to be an itch that can't be scratched. It's all wishful thinking. Sorry.

2)South Carolina

Next Meeting: 2011, @Columbia

The Gamecocks mercifully put an end to the Gators SEC Championship season, which was just as well. I couldn't have watched Steve Addazio "lead" the "Offense" against Auburn. Can you imagine what would have happened? That doesn't mean we've forgiven our old buddy Steve Spurrier. In fact, now we want to destroy his team. It's in Columbia, which makes it a little bit harder, but it's definitely doable.

1)Ole Miss

Next Meeting: 2012 @Oxford

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Bet you guys thought this day would never come, huh? The rematch with the team that ruined Florida's perfect season in 2008. I don't know about you guys, but I've carried a personal grudge against Ole Miss ever since that game (and I actually like them). Here's Florida's shot to hand them the beatdown that they were good enough to administer to the Rebels three years ago.

As I said, once I get a feel for what the teams look like, I will go into detail with strategy for each game (except for USC and Ohio State).

From a way too early look, I think that Florida has a shot to win every game on here.

Again, that could change, but we've got awhile.

Revenge, guys. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

And it's almost here....