Florida Gators News: LIU opener sells out, Volleyball opens season, more

While some schools struggle to sell out even when prominent opponents come to town, the Florida Gators have had no such problem during the Billy Napier Era. The school announced on Friday that the opener against Long Island University has officially sold out.

Kickoff is at 7 PM next Saturday, and tickets are going on the resale market for under $50.

It marks the 13th straight sellout for the Gators and begs the question of why exactly the powers that be are floating the idea of reducing capacity in The Swamp.

Volleyball falls in opener

In front of a national audience on Fox, Gator Volleyball began its new era with a hard-fought loss to No. 6 Stanford 3-1.

Florida took the first set 25-22 before Stanford won the next three 25-19, 25-22, 25-22.

The Gators hung with Stanford the whole way and had a 20-19 lead in the third set before it got away, and were tied 18-18 in the fourth set before it too went the way of the Cardinal.

Jordyn Byrd led the way for the Gators with 17 kills, while Alec Rothe had seven blocks.

It was the debut game for head coach Ryan Theis, who took over for longtime coach Mary Wise. Coincidentally enough, Wise was in the building for the match as she is doing analyst coverage for ESPN this season.

Florida returns to the court on Sunday at 1 PM against No. 3 Pitt.

Football uniform combos released

Earlier this week Billy Napier was asked about the "throwback" uniforms Florida is going to wear against Mississippi State:

"Look, uniforms are nice. Uniforms are good. Looking good is nice, playing better is nicer. I hope they're worried about how they play and not what they're wearing"

It's with that backdrop that Florida announced their full uniform combos for the 2025 season.

Throughout the year, Florida will mix between their home blue and road white jerseys and combine them with either white, blue, or orange pants.

For the opener against LIU, it will be orange helmet, blue jersey, white pants.