Latest conference news likely just drove a stake through the heart of the Miami vs. Florida football rivalry
The Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes are one of the more underrated rivalries in all of college football. The programs battled through physical and nasty battles for decades before Florida put an end to the annual rivalry after the 1987 season. The schools have played sporadically since, and each matchup has been an opportunity for […]
The Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes are one of the more underrated rivalries in all of college football. The programs battled through physical and nasty battles for decades before Florida put an end to the annual rivalry after the 1987 season.
The schools have played sporadically since, and each matchup has been an opportunity for fans of two of the most historically successful programs in the Sunshine State to establish bragging rights for years.
After Miami’s 26-7 win on Saturday, it appears as though those bragging rights could be staying with Canes fans for a long time.
Both the ACC and SEC are moving to permanent nine-game conference schedules in future years
The SEC had previously revealed that it would be going to a 9-game conference schedule with 3 permanent opponents and 6 rotating opponents for each school. On Tuesday night, they rolled out the opponents for each team from 2026 through 2029.
For Florida, that means that they will have to face 9 SEC opponents while maintaining their annual rivalry with Florida State every season. Realistically, while they could add Miami, there’s no way that they will with those 10 games on the books every year.
Miami, meanwhile, will be moving to a nine-game schedule in conference play themselves, per the ACC on Monday.
The Hurricanes will meet that requirement by a mile in 2026, as they already have games scheduled with South Carolina and Notre Dame on the road per FBSchedules.com. Beyond that, they have a non-conference game slated with Utah in 2027 in Las Vegas to open the season.
As such, both programs will have their plates very, very full going forward in 2026 and beyond. But, while conferences such as the SEC are working to try to keep some rivalries intact, the reality with the changing landscape of college football is that some rivalries and popular matchups are going to get phased out as part of that process.
Unless the programs meet in the postseason, it appears as though the last remnants of a once-great rivalry are going to be washed away for the foreseeable future. And given just how popular both College Gameday in Coral Gables and the matchup itself were last weekend, that feels like a very big mistake.
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