Florida football's shocking 2025 schedule twist will have fans celebrating

If you are not a fan of the Florida Gators playing a game at 12 p.m., the SEC just released the scheduling windows for the 2025 football season, and the Gators are not going to play a single game at noon.

For those of us who grew up on noon Jefferson Pilot games, this seems unfathomable. But when reminded what a noon game in The Swamp actually feels like for fans, this feels like a step forward for the Gators in 2025 and is a testament to what the powers that be believe Florida can become in 2025.

Florida doesn't have to play at noon in 2025

Official times haven't been set, but the SEC has released windows during which Florida can play.

According to the SEC, any game that doesn't have a set time falls into the following categories:

• Early: Noon to 1 p.m. ET start
• Afternoon: 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET start
• Night: 6 to 8 p.m. ET start
• Flex: Games flexed between the Afternoon (3:30–4:30 p.m.) and Night (6–8 p.m.) windows

It's with that in mind that these are the start time windows for all 12 of Florida's games in 2025:

• Long Island - 7 p.m.
• USF - 4:15 p.m.
• LSU - 7:30 p.m.
• Miami - TBD
• Texas - Flex
• Texas A&M - Flex
• Mississippi State - Afternoon
• Georgia - 3:30 p.m.
• Kentucky - Flex
• Ole Miss - Flex
• Tennessee - Flex
• FSU -Flex

The Miami game still could be in any given window, but we would imagine there is enough juice with that one to avoid a noon window. And if it is at noon, then we can just blame the ACC Network.

A big part of why the Gators avoided the noon window compared to schools like Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma is because of the hope and belief that DJ Lagway is going to be must-see TV in 2025.

Will he? We won't know for sure.

But for Gator fans who dread noon starts, they will take ESPN's belief.