Florida football: What does conference expansion in SEC mean for the Gators?

Florida football hasn’t been in any of the discussions surrounding conference expansion and realignment, but they’ll surely be affected by it as it happens.

It was announced yesterday that Texas and Oklahoma would be buying themselves out of their current deals and joining the SEC in 2024, meaning this is the last season with the SEC as we’ve known it for a little over a decade.

The addition of Texas and Oklahoma brings a lot to the table in terms of scheduling. Nothing is set in stone yet, but it seems that the conference will opt for a nine-game conference schedule, with three permanent opponents and rotating the other six every other year.

This means that the Gators will play teams like Alabama, Auburn, and Arkansas every other year, while no longer playing every SEC East team annually.

One thing that this guaranteed is that Florida will lose one of their annual rivalries. With only three permanent opponents, one of UGA, LSU, Tennessee, and Kentucky will be left out.

So let’s look at the potential yearly opponents for the Gators, and the likelihood that the rivalry survives the expansion.

Florida football vs Georgia

This is the only game that is just about certain to stay. Getting rid of this game would be like getting rid of The Iron Bowl. There’s just no way it will happen.

Florida-Georgia is one of the most iconic rivalries in college football. With all the debates around the game staying in Jacksonville or moving to a home-and-home format, it’s obvious that the league is planning on having this game around for a long time.

UGA has dominated the past few years of this matchup, but it’s always entertaining when these two teams meet up, and that’s something that the SEC won’t get rid of.

Although it won’t happen, there is one positive to this game being moved to a semi-annual schedule: The rivalry would actually get even more intense, not the other way around as people fear.

Imagine after that 2020 win over UGA that Florida fans had a whole two years to hold that game over Dawg fans’ heads.

“Oh nice championship guys, congrats. Hey, remember when we dragged you all over the field last time we played?”

The heat would get turned up if this game was moved semi-annually. Even though that would be fun, I still prefer it to be kept as a yearly matchup.

Florida football vs Tennessee

Even though it isn’t as certain as Georgia, I would be shocked if the Gators and Vols lost their yearly matchup in expansion.

Sure, Florida owns this rivalry in every way possible. But the finishes and storylines that this game brings us every year are incredible, and September wouldn’t be the same without it.

College Gameday makes visits to this matchup often too, especially on the rare occasion that Tennesse is favored over the Gators like they were this year.

I know for a fact that there aren’t many Gator fans who want to lose this game from the schedule. And with the recent success that Tennessee has had, all of their fans think they have the upper hand in this rivalry all of a sudden, so they want to keep playing us too.

Like I said earlier, I would be shocked if the conference desires to nix this matchup from the annual schedule.

Florida football vs LSU & Kentucky

To save everyone’s time, I’ll just combine these two into one section, because I think the third opponent is one of these two schools.

First, here’s the case for Kentucky.

They’re also in the SEC East, so having this matchup means a lot for the race to Atlanta, especially now that Kentucky has emerged as a contender in the division in recent years.

It would also be a tough deal for Kentucky fans who have had to watch the Gators win over 30 in a row, to now have won 3 of the last 5, and then not get the Gators every year anymore.

Florida fans wouldn’t really like that either, as losing to Kentucky is something that just doesn’t happen in Gainesville. We want to re-establish who big brother is here before they’re taken off our schedule.

Now the case for LSU.

The gut reaction here is that LSU would be the only SEC West team that would be an annual opponent for UF, which is something the SEC would want to preserve.

But it seems that the conference is going to get rid of divisions starting in 2024 to avoid complications in uneven divisions.

So now that SEC west vs east is out of the picture, LSU does still have an advantage over Kentucky in this context, which is competitiveness.

Florida and LSU, regardless of the sport, seems to always be a close game. And neither school has ever torn off 30 straight wins over the other.

Through the lens of interest and competitiveness, the conference will likely favor LSU over the Wildcats. But we don’t know anything until the decision is made.

Florida football’s lost opponents

Assuming that these four are the potential candidates, the Gators will lose their yearly matchups against one of LSU/Kentucky, South Carolina, Missouri, and Vanderbilt.

UF will still see these schools every other year, but the annual rivalry will be lost.

The pro of this is that they’ll also gain opponents every other year. Now we get to have Bama, Texas, Oklahoma, and Auburn in The Swamp more often, and fans who can travel to those games get to experience those environments.

There is a lot of confusion about conference expansion and realignment, but hopefully, some of this helps to answer a few questions.

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