I actually think moving UF to the end of the year makes a lot of sense for both programs. From their article:
For starters, we’re going to once again move forward with the idea of moving the Florida State game from the back end of the schedule to the front, making it the season opener. It makes sense on so many levels, yet the biggest complaint fans registered about this was the displacement of Florida-Florida State from the ESPN-coined “Rivalry Week.”
Let's move FSU to the beginning (Photo: William England, 247Sports)
Many cling to the notion that Florida-Florida State belongs on the final week of the season, where so many teams square off against their bitter in-state or fiercest conference rival. It is tradition, after all. Of course, this discounts the fact that the “tradition” of Florida-Florida State on Thanksgiving only started in 1977, for the first 20 years the game was played all over the calendar, mostly in mid-October.
The bottom line for Florida, if it truly wants to give itself the optimum chance to compete for a championship, is to move the FSU contest away from the Saturday before the SEC Championship Game. No other school in the nation faces a non-conference opponent as annually strong as Florida State (South Carolina doesn’t count) right before its conference title game. It absolutely makes no sense.
So what we propose is a positional swap of Florida State and Tennessee on the Gator schedule, moving the Vols to the back end. Think of how much excitement there would be all summer and into the preseason for a Florida-Florida State opener. Now I’m sure you were all pretty fired up for New Mexico State this past September, and you’re already working on ideas for painting your face when the UMass Minutemen (3-9 in 2015) come storming into The Swamp next Sept. 3.
But think how cool it would be for Florida and Florida State to tangle every year on Labor Day weekend, a showdown that wouldn’t destroy the losers’ championship hopes by any stretch of the imagination. Frankly, it’s a no-brainer.
Joined at the hip with the Florida State shift is the move of the Tennessee game from September to the end of November. Let’s face it, the more significant conference games need to be lined up in the final few weeks, a buildup to the climactic end of the regular season. Now there’s no way to establish an ironclad mega-matchup every year – shoot there were times the last few years when Florida-Tennessee barely moved the needle in Gainesville and Knoxville. But in terms of the SEC East, Florida-Tennessee could easily slide into any shade of Rivalry Week.
For starters, we’re going to once again move forward with the idea of moving the Florida State game from the back end of the schedule to the front, making it the season opener. It makes sense on so many levels, yet the biggest complaint fans registered about this was the displacement of Florida-Florida State from the ESPN-coined “Rivalry Week.”
Let's move FSU to the beginning (Photo: William England, 247Sports)
Many cling to the notion that Florida-Florida State belongs on the final week of the season, where so many teams square off against their bitter in-state or fiercest conference rival. It is tradition, after all. Of course, this discounts the fact that the “tradition” of Florida-Florida State on Thanksgiving only started in 1977, for the first 20 years the game was played all over the calendar, mostly in mid-October.
The bottom line for Florida, if it truly wants to give itself the optimum chance to compete for a championship, is to move the FSU contest away from the Saturday before the SEC Championship Game. No other school in the nation faces a non-conference opponent as annually strong as Florida State (South Carolina doesn’t count) right before its conference title game. It absolutely makes no sense.
So what we propose is a positional swap of Florida State and Tennessee on the Gator schedule, moving the Vols to the back end. Think of how much excitement there would be all summer and into the preseason for a Florida-Florida State opener. Now I’m sure you were all pretty fired up for New Mexico State this past September, and you’re already working on ideas for painting your face when the UMass Minutemen (3-9 in 2015) come storming into The Swamp next Sept. 3.
But think how cool it would be for Florida and Florida State to tangle every year on Labor Day weekend, a showdown that wouldn’t destroy the losers’ championship hopes by any stretch of the imagination. Frankly, it’s a no-brainer.
Joined at the hip with the Florida State shift is the move of the Tennessee game from September to the end of November. Let’s face it, the more significant conference games need to be lined up in the final few weeks, a buildup to the climactic end of the regular season. Now there’s no way to establish an ironclad mega-matchup every year – shoot there were times the last few years when Florida-Tennessee barely moved the needle in Gainesville and Knoxville. But in terms of the SEC East, Florida-Tennessee could easily slide into any shade of Rivalry Week.
