Tennessee’s Peyton Manning lost the Heisman Trophy to a Michigan defensive back in 1997. Auburn won the SEC championship with a 12-0 record in 2004 and couldn’t even qualify for the national championship game.

So, from one southerner to another, did you really think SEC champion Florida would leapfrog Michigan into the national championship game against Ohio State?

If Manning couldn’t beat out Charles Woodson for the Heisman, how in the world of the BCS could Florida play its way into the national championship game by beating another southern team in the SEC championship game?

Never mind what BCS analysts were saying late Saturday night. They’re all about numbers. I’m more about regional paranoia.

Manning had the numbers. Woodson had ESPN.

Regional paranoia took a beating Sunday. Logic prevailed. And Florida got what Auburn didn’t — a chance to play for the national title. Too bad the Gators can’t take former Auburn running backs Ronnie Brown and Carnell Williams with them to Glendale, Ariz.

Amidst all the scoring in Florida’s 38-28 victory over Arkansas, you might not have noticed the giant vacancy in the Gators backfield. Florida basically won the SEC championship game without a running back.

Leading rusher DeShawn Wynn, who was limited by a shoulder injury, carried the ball once. Backup Kestahn Moore carried it three times. So much for true tailbacks.

Instead, the Gators build their running game around impostors.

Percy Harvin, who rushed for 106 yards on six carries, is a wide receiver who lines up in the backfield and pretends to be a running back. The Razorbacks will tell you he’s a great pretender.

The Razorbacks would say the same thing about Tim Tebow, a backup quarterback who has spent his freshman season running over everything in sight. With a 10-point lead and 3:45 to play, the Gators put their trick plays back in the bag and aimed Tebow at the middle of the Arkansas defense. He carried five consecutive times for 20 yards and killed about three minutes along the way.

Maybe the Gators fooled more than the Razorbacks. Maybe they fooled voters, too. Their offense is so unconventional by SEC standards, maybe some of the Harris pollsters thought they were voting for a Pac-10 team.

That’s not hyperbole. A basic rule for understanding our process for determining a national championship in college football: Never underestimate how misinformed voters might be. And the voters are more reliable than the computers.

But this is no time for southerners to be bashing the BCS. We can applaud the process today, then resume ripping it in mid-January. Besides, Michigan will do enough ripping for everyone between now and then.

Is Michigan a better team than Florida? Who knows?

You do know that Michigan had its chance against the Buckeyes. Its loss, be it ever so close, was Florida’s gain.

You could argue that the Wolverines would have been undefeated if they hadn’t played No. 1 Ohio State. But you also could argue that Florida would have been undefeated if it hadn’t played top-10 teams LSU and Auburn on consecutive Saturdays.

The Gators were rewarded for their strength of schedule, which has long been a rallying cry for SEC coaches. And Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley was rewarded for his decision to fire Ron Zook two years ago.

Florida coach Urban Meyer didn’t have to rebuild the program, but he did have to make a huge transition. He has tweaked his offense enough to make it functional with a drop-back quarterback like Chris Leak. He has mixed the veterans recruited by Zook with young talent of his own. He has fielded a defense that looks almost as formidable as the one that won a national championship for LSU three years ago.

He might not have a team good enough to beat Ohio State. But it was good enough to beat out Michigan.

You don’t have to be a Gator to appreciate that. You just have to be a southerner.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.