[Tuck4Bama]

BATON ROUGE -- The last time Florida played a No. 1-ranked team things turned out pretty well for the Gators.

Florida waxed top-ranked Ohio State 41-14 in the BCS national championship game on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz., giving Gators Coach Urban Meyer his first college football title. This Saturday, ninth-ranked Florida (4-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) will look to strip another team of its top spot when it comes to Tiger Stadium to play LSU (5-0, 2-0 SEC).

But history seems a hopeless guide. Within the mountain of statistics the schools' athletic departments put out each week are kernels that favor the Tigers and trends that appear to give the Gators the edge.

Last week, Florida was upset at home by Auburn. In his career, Meyer is 10-1 after a loss and has dropped two in a row only once, in 2002 when he coached at Bowling Green. While at Florida, Meyer has amassed a 10-3 record against ranked teams. Saturday's game will be the 54th between the schools, and Florida leads the series 28-22-3, including 15-12 at Tiger Stadium.

On the other hand, LSU has lost only twice at home when it is ranked in the top five, one of which also happened to be the last time LSU lost in Tiger Stadium. That was a 30-27 overtime defeat against Tennessee on Sept. 26, 2005, in a game that was switched to Monday night because of Hurricane Rita and which the Tigers appeared to have in hand at halftime. Under more normal conditions, the last time such a highly ranked LSU team lost in Baton Rouge was in 1962.

History gives muddled message on LSU-Florida- NOLA.com