GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The cupcake.
It's long been a question surrounding the college game. Why not schedule a home-and-home with a Power 5 program rather than a game against a non-Power 5 program?
On Tuesday the question was asked in regards to Florida.
Georgia announced that they will now have a home-and-home series with Florida State for 2027 and 2028. This is after the Bulldogs scheduled a home-and-home with Clemson in November for 2029 and 2030.
Meanwhile the Gators have not scheduled a new home-and-home non-conference series with a team outside the state since 1988-89.
Last year's non-conference slate included: Charleston Southern, Colorado State, Idaho and the annual rivalry game against FSU.
The University has often argued that UF already has one of the toughest schedules around with the eight required SEC games, which includes a neutral site gam against Georgia in Jacksonville, plus their annual Sunshine State showdown with the Noles at the end of the year.
“We play Florida State, so people are trying to catch up to us, with how tough our schedule is, to be honest with you," said Mullen. "We play Florida State every year, right? Georgia is playing them. They’re trying to catch up to us, I guess. Toughen their schedule. We play one of the toughest schedules. It would be hard-pressed to find somebody non-conference next year. We’re playing Miami and Florida State.”
Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi asked Florida to change its philosophy on twitter and Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin quickly responded.
"Hard to find a power 5 opponent available for H/H prior to 2025," tweeted Stricklin. "But working on some neutral sites before then and H/Hs for later part of decade."
To be fair, Florida has added a few more non-conference games with in-state opponents. The Gators will still face FSU every year, but they will face Miami this August, and will then journey to Tampa to face USF in 2021, then turn back around to face the Bulls at home in 2022 and 2025.
During his Thursday press conference, Mullen did not seem to open to adding Oklahoma to its slate, however.
"We already have that with Florida State. I think that’s one thing that gets looked down upon," said Mullen. "Would it be better to drop Florida State and schedule Oklahoma. That probably wouldn’t go over so well. We already have that in the schedule.
"Scott and I talk about it. One, we play in the Southeastern Conference, so we’re already playing one of the toughest schedules in the country. Within our recruiting philosophy, one of the other tricky things we do is we play. … there’s a chance that every other year we’re playing a home game away from home already. We want to make sure we keep enough home games here in The Swamp for our fans to come see our guys playing in one of the greatest stadiums in college football. To be able to make sure we’re playing enough games in there. That’s what’s always tricky."
"We’re always trying to do what’s best for the program, play games that fit the program," added Mullen. " I want to do what we think is best for the program. I think when you look scheduling wise, even since I’ve been here, we try to do that with who’ve scheduled. Also try to make it intriguing for people. We have South Florida coming up on the schedule. That’s probably a much bigger game in the state of Florida than it would be to people in Montana. But they’re more concerned about the Montana-Montana State game. That’s a big game for people in Montana. It’s probably not as big a deal here. I think we’ve tried to really pay attention to scheduling that way and make a schedule that’s good for the program and good for the Gator fans.”
