The Florida–Florida State football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the teams of the two oldest public universities of the U.S. state of Florida: the University of Florida (UF) Gators and Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles. Both universities participate in a range of intercollegiate sports, and for the last several years, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has sponsored a "Sunshine Showdown" promotion that tallies the total number of wins for each school in head-to-head sports competition. However, the annual football game between the Gators and Seminoles has consistently been the most intense and notable competition between the in-state rivals.
FSU and UF first met on the gridiron in 1958 and have played every year since except in 2020, when scheduling modifications due to the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted what was the fourth longest continuous series in college football. The contest has usually been played late in the season and was scheduled on the Saturday after Thanksgiving from 1981 until 2022, when it was moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving. The rivals have also clashed twice in New Orleans in the Sugar Bowl, marking the only occasions in which they've met anywhere besides their on-campus stadiums.
Florida dominated the series until Bobby Bowden became FSU's coach in 1976, after which the rivalry became much more competitive. The intensity level rose to its highest point in the 1990s, when the Gators under Steve Spurrier and the Seminoles under Bowden each came into their contest with top ten rankings for every meeting from 1990 until 2001, adding national championship implications to an already heated in-state rivalry. The winner of the game would go on to compete for a national championship in six of those seasons (1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000). Both schools have continued their football success into the 21st century, with Florida winning national titles in 2006 and 2008, and Florida State winning in 2013. Florida leads the overall series 39–28–2.
Series history Roots of a rivalry Establishment of football programs
Several state-supported colleges in Florida established football programs in the early years of the 20th century, including Florida Agricultural College in Lake City, Florida State College (FSC) in Tallahassee, and the East Florida Seminary in Gainesville. FSC's program was active for three seasons (1902 to 1904), and it claimed unofficial state championships in each of those years while playing a limited schedule against in-state private and public schools.Ric A. Kabat, " Before the Seminoles: Football at Florida State College, 1902–1904", Florida Historical Quarterly, vol. LXX, no. 1, p. 35 (July 1991). Retrieved November 27, 2011.
With passage of the Buckman Act in 1905, the Florida Legislature completely reorganized the state's university system. Florida State College became Florida State College for Women, ending its football program. Four other state-supported schools (including the East Florida Seminary and Florida Agricultural College) were consolidated to establish the new University of Florida (UF), a school for men in Gainesville. Florida State College's last football coach, Jack Forsythe, was hired to lead the new school's football program, which began play in 1906. UF's sports teams took on the nickname "Gators" in 1911, and the school was a founding member of the Southeastern Conference when it was established in 1932.
The Florida Legislature reorganized the state's university system again in 1947 to accommodate the post-World War II surge in college enrollment. Both the University of Florida and Florida State College for Women became coeducational, and the Tallahassee institution changed its name to "Florida State University" (FSU). FSU re-established its football program in 1947, and it soon became a founding member of the non-scholarship Dixie Conference. In 1951, FSU left the Dixie Conference, began offering football scholarships, and scheduled games against major college programs as an independent, at which point FSU officials and supporters began pushing for games against the Gators.
Starting the series The University of Florida administration, however, was reluctant to treat Florida State University as an equal, less for reasons of intercollegiate sports rivalry than for reasons of limited state funding for higher education and the perception that Florida State's demands for a greater share of those funds might undercut the University of Florida's role as the state's historic flagship university. As the impasse dragged on, a bill was proposed in the Florida Legislature in 1955 which would have mandated that the two schools compete against each other in football and other sports. While the bill was voted down, Florida Governor LeRoy Collins personally requested to University of Florida president J. Wayne Reitz that he take the lead in starting a yearly football series between the two state universities. Reitz agreed, and the schools negotiated a contract that began their football series in 1958, the first available opening on the Gators' non-conference schedule.
One of the stipulations in the first contract was that all games be played in the Gators' home stadium, Florida Field in Gainesville, because the Seminoles' home field at Doak Campbell Stadium had a capacity of under 20,000. The first six games in the series were all played in Gainesville. Florida State initiated a series of expansions to Doak Campbell Stadium, and beginning in 1964, the game site has alternated on an annual home-and-away basis between Gainesville and Tallahassee. The Gators hold a 22–13–1 series advantage in games held in Gainesville. The series is tied in games played in Tallahassee, 14–14–1. The Gators and Seminoles have split two neutral-site games—both Sugar Bowls played in the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans (1994 and 1997). Since the game became a home-and-home rivalry, the Gators lead the series 31–26–1.
Early contests
With a strong advantage in resources, facilities, and home field advantage (the first six games of the series were played in Gainesville), the Gators would dominate the rivalry in its formative years, though often in low-scoring contests. Florida won the first three contests before a 3–3 tie in 1961 that Gator coach Ray Graves likened to "a death in the family." The teams finally played in newly expanded Doak Campbell Stadium in 1964, and FSU finally beat Florida, a feat they repeated in Gainesville in 1967.
Overall, however, the Gators were 16–2–1 against the Seminoles from 1958 until 1976. One particularly poor stretch for the Seminoles was from 1969 to 1972 when wide receiver Barry Smith was playing for Florida State. He didn't play in the 1969 contest since freshmen were not eligible then but later recalled his experiences in the rivalry for The Tampa Tribune,
"My sophomore year ... I ran a reverse ... and I remember being nailed by Jack Youngblood. I remember watching the ball being pitched to me and thinking, when the ball was about halfway, that it was kind of race to see whether he was going to get to the ball first or me. He was foaming at the mouth. I still have nightmares from the hit he gave me ... . My junior year, we were 5–0 and Florida was 0–5. There is no question that we were the much better team, and they beat us ... . My senior year, we're playing Florida at home and we're 4–0. They had a decent team, but it wasn't like the year before ... . Chan Gailey was their quarterback, and he had a big game. That game was a blowout. They torched us. It got so bad, I had to throw a touchdown pass ... ."
1976–1989: Arrival of Bowden; the rise and fall of Pell Bobby Bowden arrived at Florida State in 1976 and began to turn around the athletic program. After losing his first game against Florida in 1976, the Seminoles would win the next four in the rivalry, their first wins in the series since 1967. This would begin a decade and a half period in which the rivals would take turns running off winning streaks against the other.
The Gators changed leadership as well, hiring coach Charley Pell from Clemson University to replace Doug Dickey in 1979. After a dismal 0–10–1 first season, Pell quickly turned around the Florida program, fielding championship-contending teams by the early 1980s.
Under Pell's leadership, Florida took their turn dominating the rivalry from 1981 to 1986, including putting a series-record 53 points on the scoreboard in the 1983 contest. However, an NCAA investigation of Florida's football program revealed multiple violations of rules in the early years of Pell's tenure. Pell was fired and the program put on probation beginning in 1985. For the next 3 seasons, Florida played with a reduced number of scholarship players and Gator football games could not appear on television, setting the program back considerably and allowing Florida State to sign more talented in-state high school recruits.
In 1986, the Gators extended their winning streak against FSU with a 17–13 upset in Tallahassee. However, FSU then ran off four consecutive victories over Florida as they became a fixture in the top-10 rankings and Florida's program floundered under heavy NCAA sanctions.
From the arrival of Bowden in 1976 to the end of the 1980s, the series was tied 7–7. The return of a familiar face to the Gators' sideline before the 1990 season would bring the rivalry to new national prominence.
1990–2001: Bowden vs. Spurrier The era in which Steve Spurrier coached Florida against Bowden's FSU squads is widely considered the high point of the rivalry, as the national success of both programs increased the importance and the intensity of the matchups. Florida and Florida State played 14 games in the period (two were Sugar Bowl rematches), and both teams were ranked in the AP Top-10 for 12 of those meetings, including six instances when both rivals were ranked in the Top-5. Florida State and Florida combined for three national championships in the 1990s; Florida State won in 1993 and 1999 and played for two more, while Florida played in two national championship games and won the 1996 title in a Sugar Bowl rematch with FSU. Additionally the programs won a total of fourteen conference championships in the 1990s, Florida State won the ACC eight times while Florida won six SEC titles.
Spurrier had won a Heisman Trophy as Florida's quarterback in 1966 and returned to Gainesville as the Gators' new head coach for the 1990 season. His first experience coaching in the in-state matchup was the first meeting of top-10 squads in the history of the rivalry (UF No. 6, FSU No. 8), with Bowden's Seminoles winning 45–30 in Tallahassee. The stakes were even higher in 1991 in Gainesville, as both teams were ranked in the AP Poll top five (FSU No. 3, UF No. 5). The Gators had just clinched their first SEC Championship while the Seminoles were still feeling the sting of a 17–16 defeat at the hands of the rival Miami Hurricanes. The game was a defensive struggle that culminated in a Gator defensive stand late in the fourth quarter to preserve a 14–9 win. No. 3 FSU dominated the 1992 contest in Tallahassee 45–24 against then-No. 6 UF.
The 1993 contest was arguably the most talented teams of any in the history of the rivalry. Two future Heisman trophy winners in Charlie Ward and Danny Wuerffel were starting at quarterback. The No. 1 Seminoles beat the No. 7 Gators 33–21, and went on to win the Bowl Alliance national championship. In the 1994 contest in Tallahassee, Florida held a 31–3 lead at the start of the 4th quarter, but a furious FSU comeback ended in a 31–31 tie in what became known as the "Choke at Doak". The teams were given a rematch in the Sugar Bowl ("The Fifth Quarter in the French Quarter"), which the Seminoles won 23–17. The No. 3 Gators beat the No. 6 Seminoles 35–24 in Gainesville in 1995, capping off Florida's first undefeated regular season.