Unless some agreements are broken or Jeremy Foley changes his mind, Saturday’s Florida-Miami game will be the last meeting between the two schools in Gainesville until 2019, at the earliest.
The fifth-ranked Gators host the Hurricanes at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. It’s Miami’s first visit to Florida Field since a 41-16 win in 2002.
The two teams also will play in 2013 in Miami. As for any future games, the Florida athletic director said he will only schedule the Hurricanes when college football’s season has 14 weeks — giving the Gators two open dates during that season.
The next 14-week season in which the Gators have any openings in their schedule is 2019. The 2014 season is also 14 weeks but Florida already has deals in place for nonconference games.
“I’m sure there will be an interest to do it again some time down the road,”
Foley said. “We’re just not scheduling out that far right now. I think in fairness to your football team you want to play it in a season when you have 14 weeks to play 12 games, to give you that open. I mean, I’m not sure I’d be in favor of playing Miami and Tennessee back-to-back or Miami and Georgia back-to-back or Miami and FSU back-to-back. I don’t think that’s fair to our football team.”
Asked if he thought Florida would ever play Miami again, Foley said, “Oh, yes. It’s a good series on an occasional basis for both programs. I think it’s good for the state. Obviously it creates a tremendous amount of interest.”
In addition to the game’s broadcast, ESPN’s GameDay crew also will be in Gainesville on Saturday.
Foley said a large Gator fan base in South Florida and the amount of recruits in the area make it natural to keep the game alive.
Florida annually ranks among the toughest schedules in the nation. The Southeastern Conference is considered by most experts as the toughest league in college football. Three SEC teams are ranked in the top six in the USA Today coaches poll this season, and the last two national titles were won by SEC teams (LSU last year and Florida in 2006).
Florida must play eight games in the Southeastern Conference and rival Florida State each season. That leaves three open slots, but the Gators are not interested in giving up many more home dates to play any home-and-home series because they would be sacrificing millions of dollars in profits plus a huge impact each contest has on the economy in Alachua County.
Foley said he might be interested in playing one game at a neutral site instead of home-and-home series with Miami down the road.
“I think neutral site games are always a possibility, especially within the state,”
Foley said. “Certainly you have a lot of great cities in this state with big-time stadiums. Tampa, of course, has a great stadium. Jacksonville, we already play a neutral site game there (with Georgia). Orlando’s getting ready to put a lot of money into their stadium, so you look at that.”
