Florida reveals Week 6 showdown with Texas is a sellout at The Swamp
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Florida is 1-3 and mired in a 3-game losing streak that has rekindled headlines about the program being stuck in neutral — or far worse — under the embattled Billy Napier.
But nobody can say that Florida fans have turned their backs on their struggling team as we hit October. On Friday afternoon, Florida announced that Saturday’s SEC showdown against No. 9 Texas (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) was a sellout, marking the 15th straight sellout at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
It’s quite the crazy situation for Florida, which hasn’t won since Week 1 after losses to South Florida, LSU and Miami yet is still drawing fans like crazy to The Swamp. Sure, Saturday will bring an extremely attractive opponent to Gainesville led by high-profile quarterback Arch Manning. But a streak of 15 straight sellouts means that Florida is packing Ben Hill Griffin Stadium no matter who the opponent is.
Saturday’s sellout will be the 19th overall in the Napier era. Four games were sellouts in Napier’s first season in 2022, with 5 more sellouts in 2023 and all 7 home games being sellouts last year. Now, it’ll be 3 for 3 in sellouts this fall, following the sellouts against Long Island and USF.
In August, the Gators Ticket Office announced the sellout of season tickets, while student season tickets were sold out for the fourth straight season under Napier.
Clearly, all the losing and all of the anger toward Napier from Gators fans isn’t translating to the ticket office.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
