In-state rivals Florida and Miami have met on the gridiron 55 times, with Miami currently holding a 29-26 all-time edge in the series. Unfortunately, the two schools have only met six times since the year 2000 and judging by recent comments by Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, their next scheduled game in 2019 may be a rare occurrence moving forward.

Foley called in to WRUF in Gainesville and spoke specifically about the series with the Hurricanes.

“No, I do not see them on our schedule on a regular basis,” Foley said on the air. “I think when you’re asking your football team to play eight games in this league and Florida State, that’s a tough slate. This league is obviously as good as it gets, and Florida State is as good as it gets.”

By dodging an annual series with Miami, Florida is able to schedule annual blood paths against teams such as UMass, North Texas and Presbyterian. These games offer little value outside of allowing the school and local community to rake in cash on game days; and it’s not just Florida doing this, it’s every SEC school.

No one would argue that an eight-game SEC slate and an annual Florida State game is among the most difficult challenges a college football team could face but unless the SEC adopts a nine-game conference schedule anytime soon, few will feel sorry for the Gators or any other SEC team.

The Pac-12 and the Big Ten have already moved to a nine-game conference schedule and if the SEC isn’t careful, they could find themselves being left out of the playoff if their schools refuse to play more than one quality opponent in the non-conference in addition to having fewer conference games than other schools competing for playoff berths.

Having both Miami and Florida State on the schedule would certainly make up for only playing eight conference games and would give the Gators a more valid argument for playoff inclusion in the event of a potential playoff committee debate.

Unfortunately for the time being, SEC fans appear to be stuck with as many as three cupcake non-conference opponents more often than not. For now, fans of the Gator-Hurricane series have only 2019 to look forward to.