Florida is 5-2 and No. 17 in this week’s AP poll. Texas is 5-2 and No. 11. Ole Miss is 5-2 and No. 12. Florida beat both of them, and the poll has it backwards.

The case for the Gators

• Beat Ole Miss 52-28 in Gainesville on Sept. 26.
• Won at Texas 27-24 on Oct. 17.
• Also won at Auburn, 44-39.

The case against

• Lost 45-17 at Missouri on Oct. 3. Missouri is No. 23 and lost 31-3 at Ole Miss two weeks later.
• Lost 38-19 at home to South Carolina on Oct. 10.

Those are ugly. I’m not pretending a 28-point loss and a 19-point home loss didn’t happen. That’s the voters’ whole case, and it’s a real one.

Our answer: head-to-head wins

When three teams have the same record and one of them beat the other two, that team goes first. Florida didn’t squeak by Ole Miss; it scored 52. It didn’t beat Texas at home; it went to Austin and won. Bad losses tell you how a team looked in early October. Head-to-head tells you who won when they actually played.

So here’s the order: Florida 11, Texas 12 (the Longhorns beat Ole Miss 34-27 on Saturday), Ole Miss 13. Same three teams, same three spots, just in the order the games already decided.

The good news for the voters: Florida gets No. 3 Georgia on Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Central on ABC. Win that one and nobody’s arguing anymore. Lose by 28 again and fine, the voters were right, and I’ll hear about it.

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Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade.