Last week someone wrote that Georgia's season "officially" began against LSU. Funny, my ever-astute Bulldog buddy Worm noted over lunch at Applebee's recently, "the season doesn't begin until the Florida game."

"Oh yeah," you cry out, "That's the fact, Jack!"

So here's a Georgia-Florida one-question quiz for you. You must be true to yourself and stay with the first number that comes to your mind. Ready?

Since Steve Spurrier's arrival as head coach at Florida in 1990, how many S.E.C. East Titles would Georgia have won if the Dawgs hadn't gone 3-15 against the Gators over that 18-game span?

Got your answer?

Let's break the answer into two parts.

Including this season, since 1997, Georgia has entered the Florida game with a 68-11 record. That's a 6-1 average over eleven years. Reverse our fortunes against the Gators by winning this match-up and the S.E.C. Title was ours for the taking three, four, maybe five times???

Now, go back to Spurrier's first game in 1990 and our losing streak against Florida has probably cost us how many? Six, eight, dare I venture TEN shots at the S.E.C. Championship Game?

Shocker of the year, folks: Since 1997 Georgia's participation in the S.E.C. Championship game would have changed only ONCE had the outcome of the game against Florida been reversed. Since Spurrier's tenure in Gainesville began in 1990 Georgia would have won exactly two more S.E.C. East titles -- even if the Bulldogs had won all 18 games over the Gators during that time, rather than losing 15 of the 18.

Don't believe it? Let's start with the last eleven ? starting with the 1997 Mike Bobo-led thrashing of then-sixth-ranked Florida, 37-17.

Including that season, Georgia has played Florida eleven times and lost eight. The three times that Georgia has beaten the Gators over that span (1997, 2004, 2007) we didn't make it to the Georgia Dome anyway.

In three of those years we lost head-to-head against the Gators but the Bulldogs still ended up going to the S.E.C. Title game (2002, 2003, and 2005). So, beating Florida wouldn't have made a difference because we won the East anyway.

That leaves five other match-ups against the cursed crocs.

1998: Georgia loses to Florida but Tennessee goes perfect in the S.E.C. East to win the division. A Georgia win over Florida wouldn't have mattered.

1999: Georgia loses to Florida but the Gators beat us by two games. Had Georgia won in Jacksonville it would've resulted in a three-way tie with Tennessee. However -- best as I can figure out -- the Vols would've won the tie-breaker based on the sixth level of tie-breaker rules (whoever wrote those rules probably came from a tax-code writing background)

2000: Had we defeated Florida, Georgia would've won the tie-breaker and gone to the S.E.C. Championship Game. TA-DA!!!! There's your one.

2001: Tennessee won the division and finished two games ahead of the Dawgs, so the loss to Florida didn't matter in the end. ("Yeah, but if we had beaten BOTH the Vols and the Gators?")

2006: Florida finished three games ahead of UGA. A win would've still left us 5-3 against the Gators 6-2.

So there you have it. In the past eleven seasons the outcome of the S.E.C. East Division Champion would have been altered only ONCE had the result of the Georgia-Florida game been reversed. Y2K was the year.

So, while you stare in disbelief and try to shoot holes in the research above, you say to yourself ? I guess that all the heartbreaking division losses to Spurrier are what kept us out.

Unh-unh.

Let's go back to the beginning of Spurrier's reign:

1990: Georgia (2-5) was too bad for the defeat to matter. Florida (6-1) lost title rings due to NCAA infractions.

1991: Florida finished three games ahead of Georgia. Head-to-head wouldn't have changed UGA's predicament.

1992: If we had beaten them, then the Bulldogs would have won the East. Then we would've played eventual National Champion Alabama for the S.E.C. Title in the muck of Birmingham. But we WOULD HAVE WON the east! At least.

1993: Georgia was too far behind in the final standings for a win over the Gators to have made a difference.

1994: See 1993

1995: See 1994

1996: Don't ask. Just ditto.

1997-on: We've already revealed.

Final tally: Since Steve Spurrier returned to Florida, and through the Ron Zook and Urban Meyer regimes - a span of 18 years - only two games would've changed the outcome of the S.E.C. East had the winner lost and the loser won in the Georgia-Florida game.

Betcha didn't see that coming.

Notes:

• Over the past ten+ seasons Georgia and Florida sport the two best records in the SEC. The Bulldogs are 104-31. The Gators are 99-35.
• Tim Tebow, Heisman Trophy winner, has a career record of 15-5 as a starter. He'd have to win his next ten straight games in order to tie Matthew Stafford's record as a starter - 25-5!
• Georgia and Florida have met only once previous to this year when both teams were ranked in single digits. In 1983 the fourth-ranked Dawgs marched 99 yards in the second half to trim the ninth-ranked Gators 10-9.
• Georgia and Florida have met 18 times when ranked. The Bulldogs lead those games 9-8-1.
• Of those 18 previous meetings when both teams are ranked the higher ranked team is 12-5-1.

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