Florida, UCF football near agreement on 2-for-1 home-and-home series, per report

By Adam Silverstein
July 14, 2021
Florida, UCF football near agreement on 2-for-1 home-and-home series, per report
Football

Image Credit: GatorsFB / Twitter

A long-awaited and much-debated home-and-home series between the Florida Gators and UCF Knights appears to be only a matter of technicality at this point. Florida and UCF are on the verge of agreeing to a three-game series that would see two games played in Gainesville and one in Orlando, according to the Orlando Sentinel‘s Mike Bianchi, who is citing sources from both programs.

Not only will the Gators play in Orlando, their game against the Knights would take place on UCF’s campus in the Bounce House. That contest would kickoff in 2030 with UCF visiting Gainesville in 2024 and 2033, according to Bianchi.

Florida has long been open to playing UCF, but the ball never got rolling for a series between the programs due to a nonsensical stance taken by former Knights athletic director Danny White, the brother of current Gators head basketball coach Mike White.

Though Florida AD Scott Stricklin was open to a 2-for-1 deal, which is commonplace between Power Five teams and Group of Five opponents who want to host a game against a marquee opponent such as the Gators, Danny White puffed his chest and took a stance that UCF was above accepting such a deal as it was experiencing a short period of on-field success. He huffed about it publicly to the point that most nationally grew wary of his position and sided with Florida, which quickly agreed to such a series with South Florida.

With White out and Terry Mohajir moving into his chair as UCF AD this offseason, it appears as if talks moved quickly. Stricklin is notoriously aggressive in making top-tier scheduling arrangements for the Gators and appears to have delivered exactly what he promised to Florida fans by standing his ground and waiting for UFC to come around.

Florida is 2-0 all-time against UCF with victories in 2006 and 1999 by a combined 73 points.

The Gators have upcoming Power Five nonconference games against Florida State (annually), Utah (2022-23), Miami (2024-25), NC State (2026, 2032), Cal (2026-27), Colorado (2028-29), Arizona State (2028, 2031), Texas (2030-31) and Notre Dame (2031-32). Their aforementioned three-game series against USF will be played in Tampa this season and at The Swamp in 2022 and 2025.

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