When it comes to how I see sports teams, something goes into effect that I guess can be called “image factor” or something like that. I’ll explain what that means. There’s something that pops into your head when it comes to brands. Items, companies, and even sports teams create a “brand” for themselves, and an image that is supposed to pop into your head when you see or hear the organization’s name. For example, when you see or hear “Coca-Cola,” a mental image of the color red and the script writing my pop into your thoughts. For Pepsi, you should get a blue mental image, as well as the circle logo. There are also positive and negative vibes you get from each, determined based on what you prefer. You get a positive feeling from hearing “Coke” if you like Coca-Cola over Pepsi, or you may have a negative notion when it comes to hearing something like “Enron” or even “O.J. Simpson,” remembering all of his court cases and convictions rather than his solid football career.

All of these factors collaborate to create something for me called the image factor. And sports teams have it. It’s based on a lot of different things, and for some teams, different factors contribute. It can range from a team’s name and logo to its colors and uniforms, from its head coach to certain big-name players, from certain game strategies to off-the-field news. It’s just a lot of subconscious things that mix together over time (and instantly) to form the image factor. It’s something you can’t really control.

Now that you know what I’m talking about when I say image factor, I’m going to offer my rankings of the Florida college football programs, based on how well I think they’ve done creating their image factor.

1. Florida Gators
I know, I know, you might have seen this one coming. But there is honestly no school in the state of Florida, and maybe in the nation, that can compete with the Gators when it comes to solidifying themselves as an elite athletic program. The thing about Florida is, though, that it’s not purely about football. UF puts up solid teams across the board in both men’s and women’s athletics, and if a team doesn’t do well, it has the budget to expend the coach to bring in someone who will succeed. That’s the way it is with Florida. You succeed or you hit the bricks. Football head coach Urban Meyer has chosen the former, and no college football household doesn’t recognize the name Tim Tebow. Florida’s bid to the National Championship this year doesn’t hurt matters, either, in terms of having the elitist image factor. In terms of uniforms and logo, Florida has pretty much remained true to its classic roots, even throwing in a throwback uniform every now and then. However, the team has been able to modernize its look while keeping it clean-cut and not too “Nike-fied,” staying true to old Gator style.

2. FAU Owls
I really like the image factor of Florida Atlantic University. The upstart program created in 1998 by Howard Schellenberger has received invitations to, and won, two bowl games in the past two years. The image factor is that the Owls are a young and fresh team with a serious and determined head coach in Schellenberger who plans on the program, though new, succeeding and doing well against tough competition. A big part of FAU’s image factor is the image factor of Schellenberger himself, whose silver hair and mustache coupled with his nice, semiformal sideline attire give him almost a “Colonel Sanders” aura. The Owls’ uniforms are also something to be praised. The Owls’ attire resembles the clean-cut tri-striped look of the old New England Patriots, and the color scheme is a nice combination of red, white and blue.

3. Florida State Seminoles
Whenever I think of Bobby Bowden, I always happen to think of Joe Paterno. The two all-time winningest coaches in FBS (Division-I) history certain have an old-school feel to their programs, but I think Bowden has adjusted his FSU program to fit a modern image factor better than Paterno has. Bowden seems to enjoy new media, and the Seminoles’ uniforms and logos have adjusted accordingly. The big thing that distinguishes Bowden, and in turn, Florida State, from Paterno is that Bowden seems aware. He seems to know what’s going on in today’s football and sports media world, while Paterno just seems oblivious. Sure, he’s a good coach, but he just doesn’t seem to know what’s going on as far as new-style football. The one thing that negatively affects FSU’s image factor is its number of suspensions Bowden has had to deal out over the past few seasons. The Seminoles have had to deal with behavior problems ever since Bowden has been there, so that’s really nothing new, though.

4. South Florida Bulls
The Bulls’ short stint as the No. 2 team in the nation in 2007 helped the program’s image factor, but the way the college football season ended up last year, with No. 2 after No. 2 reaching that pinnacle then dropping off the cliff, it seems as if they were simply the beneficial victim of the system. USF hasn’t so much as sniffed the Top 10 since that stint last year, but the Bulls are still making their case to become a solid football program in the tough state of Florida. USF, similarly to FAU, were started from scratch by current head coach Jim Leavitt, who gives off a very different vibe than Schellenberger. Leavitt, with his hair sticking out of the top of his visor and his pumped-up attitude, gives off a young, charismatic pro-wrestler-like attitude. That, coupled with the scrappy nature of posterchild quarterback Matt Grothe gives the Bulls their fiery nature. The Bulls have the attitude they can compete with any team in the nation, and they certainly have the energy to do so.

5. Miami Hurricanes
Credit it mainly to NFL players keeping the legacy of “The U” alive, because the university itself hasn’t done much lately to up its image factor. The 2007 shooting of Washington Redskin Sean Taylor, who was a Miami graduate, brought the Hurricane NFL nation together and made the school’s football program more prominent. Pro running backs like Clinton Portis, Frank Gore and Edgerrin James have given Miami a reputation for spitting out solid running back after running back, but lately, all the school has been known for is mediocre performance and being one of the rare schools that have an African American head coach (Randy Shannon). Until the ‘Canes find a way to bump the program back up into contention with the other elite Florida programs, I don’t see the school’s image factor improving soon. Shout-outs from current NFL players will only make “The U” seem like “The Used to be.”

6. FIU Golden Panthers
To be honest, I don’t know much about FIU’s program, except that it has been made fun of by ESPN.com’s Bottom 10 rankings, coupled with FAU, by simply listing “F_U” when neither program was doing well at all. The team went a miserable 1-11 this season, and I honestly had to look it up on Wikipedia to see if FIU was actually a Division-I school. I haven’t heard much about the program, but because of what school falls next in the rankings, it’s better to have no reputation at all than to have a terrible one.

7. UCF Knights
Finishing last on the image factor rankings is UCF, and for good reason. The 2008 pre-season death of running back Ereck Plancher after doing conditioning drills, while allegedly getting verbally abused by head coach George O’Leary, who denies the claims, has hung a dark cloud over the school that will be there until something is settled. The death and consequences of it led to several players (and friends of Plancher) leaving the team for other schools, and UCF’s seemingly low amount of remorse over the incident has not made the university look good. In 2007, Knights running back Kevin Smith finished second all-time to Barry Sanders in single-season rushing yardage, which helps the school’s image a b
it (though that was before Plancher’s death). The fact that he is playing and having a solid season now in the NFL also helps. The fact that he plays for the hapless Detroit Lions doesn’t.