UGA, FSU, Tennessee, Miami, LSU among top rivalries

One of the most important aspects of college football that has helped entrench it into American culture is the rivalry game, for which every school has at least one.

Many of these matchups have been played for over 100 years — longer than the current forms of the NBA, NFL, and NHL have existed, and sometimes contemporaneous with early Major League Baseball. That has allowed generations of sports fans to continue a long and storied tradition with their favorite colleges and universities.

The Florida Gators officially started competing on the collegiate gridiron in 1911 as an independent team, before joining the Southern Conference in 1922 along with a large proportion of their future Southeastern Conference peers — a league that began play in 1932. Those early years provided the Orange and Blue with three of the five foes that The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman included in his rankings of the top 100 college football rivalries.

Dochterman chose to feature Florida’s matchups with the Florida State Seminoles (No. 9), Georgia Bulldogs (No. 12), Tennessee Volunteers (No. 36), Miami Hurricanes (No. 58) and LSU Tigers (No. 64) among the best rivalries in the sport. Many Gators fans may disagree with the rankings of the top two — UGA should be among the top-10 and arguably ahead of FSU, but it is what it is.

Below is a look at how Florida’s five top rivalries break down in Dochterman’s eyes.

All Time Record: Florida, 38-28-2First Meeting: Nov. 22, 1958Total Meetings: 68

What to know: “What was a nice in-state nonconference series turned into one of national consequence during the 1990s,” Dochterman offers. “With coaching legends Steve Spurrier and Bobby Bowden on opposite sides, Florida-Florida State set the table for many postseasons. Its annual importance may have diminished, but it’s still the most prominent SEC-ACC…


Source link : https://gatorswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/gators/football/2025/07/09/florida-football-top-100-rivalry-games-georgia-fsu-miami-tennessee-lsu/84518852007/

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Publish date : 2025-07-09 16:18:00

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