Billy Napier guarantees Florida will continue to play Florida State as SEC moves to 9 conference games
By Jacob Moss
Published:
One of the biggest announcements across the college football landscape over the past few weeks was the news that the SEC would officially move to a 9-game conference schedule starting in 2026.
This revelation marked a massive shift in the historic conference’s scheduling practices, as they had been utilizing an 8-game in-conference slate for the last 3 decades.
With the new shift to a more rigorous in-conference model, some have begun to worry about whether some of the sport’s most iconic rivalries will be affected by the downsizing of out-of-conference matchups.
One such iconic rivalry is that of the Florida Gators and their hated in-state rivals, the Florida State Seminoles, the latter of which plays in the ACC.
Losing out on one of college football’s best rivalries would undoubtedly be a massive blow, but fortunately for Gator and Seminole fans everywhere, Billy Napier isn’t letting the nearly 70-year-long rivalry die out under his watch.
“That’s a historical game, that’s not going away,” Napier said on Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference. “If we had 11 conference games, we are still going to play Florida-Florida State.”
Rivalries like the one between the Gators and the Noles are part of what make this sport so special, and it’s very clear that Napier understands this reality.
It was unlikely the Florida Cup was going to go anywhere regardless, but it’s still nice to get some reassurance from the man in charge at UF.
