Florida-South Carolina to play for SEC women's soccer title in Gainesville tonight

Two weeks ago, the Florida women's soccer team knew exactly what it needed to do: win its final three regular season games and the SEC championship would belong to the Gators.

Two down, one to go.

No. 10 Florida (13-4-2, 7-1-2 SEC) will play No. 13 South Carolina (15-2-1, 7-2-1 SEC) at 6 p.m. today at James G. Pressly Stadium in Gainesville with the SEC championship on the line.

A victory would give UF its 10th SEC title. South Carolina is vying for at least a share of its first league crown.

"It's the biggest game of the SEC season for us,'' UF coach Becky Burleigh said. "It's a championship game. We have a lot of respect for South Carolina, they have a very good team and they've played terrific all season. They've been really consistent and there's really no weakness in their team. We're excited about the match and looking forward to Friday night. We're hoping a lot of people will stick around Gainesville on Friday and not go to Jacksonville until Saturday to see our match.''

The last meeting between UF and USC was decided by a single goal.

The match will be televised live on FSN-Florida.

Florida Gators are Sports Illustrated's preseason No. 1

Sports Illustrated will unveil its preseason Top 20 this week, and no surprise, the magazine has Florida ranked No. 1. 

Florida's is SI's pick to win the SEC East, and predicts Florida will play Texas in the BCS national championship game.

SI also predicts that Tim Tebow, Brandon Spikes, Carlos Dunlap, Joe Haden  and Brandon James will be first team All-Americans.

The magazine's Top 10: Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Virginia Tech, Mississippi, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Boise State, Ohio State.

Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead and center Daverin Geralds are on the cover.

The magazine hits newstands on Wednesday.

Southeastern Conference concludes 2008-09 season with five national titles

With LSU's victory over Texas in the College World Series Wednesday night, the SEC concluded the 2008-09 sports season with five national championships - tying with the 2007-08 season.

SEC schools won national titles in football (Florida) men's swimming and diving (Auburn), women's indoor track and field (Tennessee), gymnastics (Georgia) and baseball (LSU).

In 10 of its 20 sponsored sports, the SEC had either the national champion or the national runners-up.

The SEC national runners-up were: men’s golf (Arkansas), gymnastics (Alabama), softball (Florida), women’s swimming & diving (Georgia) and men’s indoor track & field (Florida).

In its 76-year history, the SEC has won 179 team national championships, including 63 since 2000. In this decade, the SEC has won at least one national championship in 16 of its 20 sponsored sports with the exception of women’s cross country, volleyball, soccer and softball.