41-14? No freakin' way!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Not because of the holidays, but because of sports – NFL playoffs, bowl games, Division I-AA playoffs, the prelude to March Madness and even some regular-season NBA games to boot.

Here’s one point of view on some of the recent hot-button issues:

 Florida 41, Ohio State 14.

Huh?

It says it all that one day after the Buckeyes’ historic debacle, the school’s official athletics Web site featured the gymnastics team on its front page.

Holy smokes.

The Gators were by far the best team on the field Monday night. No question.

But should they have been 27 points better?

How much impact did a 51-day layoff between games have on Ohio State’s weak showing?

Where does this leave Boise State, which, by the way, finished the season as the only undefeated team in Division I-A, but didn’t even get a shot at the national title game?

There is one unavoidable answer to both questions, one that will end the purposeless controversy and give much-needed integrity to the I-A universe.

Playoffs.

 There is definitely some poetic justice to the fact that Jeff Garcia is currently leading Terrell Owens’ old team through the NFL playoffs.

Now, you won’t find non-stop anti-T.O. speech in this column like you will in virtually every other media outlet. Although he is often a questionable teammate and drops far too many passes to have such an elevated image of himself, he is still only one football player. As such, he should not be the lead story on SportsCenter every single day during training camp.

With that said, the way Owens demeaned and insulted Garcia – then a Pro Bowl quarterback – in San Francisco and continued to badger him after being traded to Philadelphia was inexcusable. What did Garcia ever do to Owens other than throw him dozens of touchdown passes from 1999-2003?

The best part of it all is that Garcia and Donovan McNabb – the other Pro Bowl quarterback Owens likes to pick on – are now on the same team.

A team that beat out Owens’ for the NFC East title.

 It’s no surprise that Mark McGwire didn’t get into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

It didn’t help that he virtually went into hiding since his “I’m not here to talk about the past” display before Congress in March 2005. You’d have a better chance of getting an interview with a Big Mac at McDonald’s than with the baseball version.

What was surprising is that Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were not unanimous choices.

How pretentious do some writers have to be to vote against those two guys merely based on the belief that no one should be unanimous?

Both players are in the top 18 all-time in hits and helped define the game for an entire generation. If they can’t be unanimous inductees, who can?

 So Allen Iverson demanded a trade after 11 seasons in Philadelphia.

Can you blame him?

In more ways than one, it was time for a fresh start.

Iverson’s scoring average is slightly down with the Nuggets, but he is shooting a higher percentage than in Philadelphia and his team will be in position for a championship run once Carmelo Anthony returns.