GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Hours before game time, they line the brick benches along University Avenue like vultures on a telephone line. Gators fans, beers in hand, wait to spew some Gainesville venom at anything wearing a bright orange 'T'.

"Hey, Pylon!" one screams at an unprepared Vols fan.

"Gator bait! Gator bait!" yells another.

"Hey, I got some great seats on the 50!" sneers a third.

This all started last night, as University Avenue got plenty rowdy plenty fast, with locals and visiting Vols fans exchanging chants and songs at a watering hole known appropriately as The Swamp. When a black Chevy SUV rolled by with Vols flags fluttering and an orange siren on top, the Tennessee fan behind the wheel looked out his window just in time to receive a 21 middle-finger salute.

But in a large party tent tucked just off the strip this afternoon, a much quieter scene unfolds. Gators fans and Vols fans sit side-by-side, mouths shut, staring straight ahead. On a 50-inch big screen TV at one end of the tent, Miami pounds on Virginia Tech. The TV will go to a raffle winner at 9 p.m. tonight, but everyone here would trade his or her ticket for one to Pasadena.

A swell of applause greets a Virginia Tech blocked kick, but the next hour brings only groans and grimaces. A Miller Lite delivery man stops his rounds to watch Canes QB Ken Dorsey complete a long pass. "Damn!" he mutters before proceeding. One Gator fan drops his head into his hands after a Jeremy Shockey run.

Fans of both these schools will see the Canes next year, as Miami travels to both Gainesville and Knoxville for regular season games. But all seated in this particular tent wouldn't mind waiting a few more months for that matchup. A Miami win today means both teams must win two more games and then knock off the nation's daunting No. 1 to win the national championship. Anyone who watched the Gators bow to Dorsey and 'Canes in January's Sugar Bowl would rather see Texas or Oregon find its way to Pasadena.

After an Ed Reed interception, two fans in slightly different shades of orange shake their heads and sigh. "Even after two picks and two scores," says the Gator fan, "I still think Tech could come back and win this game."

The Vol fan nods hesitantly.

Then the two get to talking about the unfairness of having to play a championship game after a brutal conference schedule, while the 'Canes breeze through the Big East. "It's just so hard to win a national championship these days coming out of this conference," whines the Gator fan.

The Vol fan grins and nods knowingly.

Outside, the taunts continue. But here in an eerily silent tent, at least for a moment in the hours leading up to the so-called biggest game in Swamp history, the BCS makes fast friends -- and strange bedfellows.