Florida–Florida State football rivalry
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| First meeting | November 22, 1958 Florida 21, Florida State 7 |
|---|---|
| Latest meeting | November 26, 2016 Florida State 31, Florida 13 |
| Next meeting | November 25, 2017 in Gainesville |
| Trophy | Florida Cup |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 61 |
| All-time series | Florida leads, 34–25–2 (.574) |
| Largest victory | Florida, 49–0 (1973) |
| Longest win streak | Florida, 9 (1968–76) |
| Current win streak | Florida State, 4 (2013–present) |
The Florida–Florida State football rivalry (known as the Sunshine Showdown) is an American college football rivalry between the teams of the two oldest public universities of the U.S. state of Florida: the University of Florida Gators and Florida State University Seminoles. Although both universities participate in a range of intercollegiate sports, the competition between the Gators and the Seminoles has most often focused on football.
The Florida and Florida State football series began in 1958, and the game has usually been played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving since the 1970s. The Gators dominated the series before coach Bobby Bowden first brought FSU to national prominence in the late 1970s, after which the Seminoles have held a slight advantage. Florida leads the series 34–25–2.
For the past three decades, one or both squads have usually been highly ranked coming into the game, adding national championship implications to a rivalry already heavily weighted with in-state bragging rights. From 1990 to 2000, every meeting featured both schools being ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press rankings, with one of both schools ranked in the top 5 on multiple occasions. The winner of the game would go on to compete in the national championship game in seven of those seasons (1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2013).
Florida State College, one of the predecessor institutions of Florida State University, sponsored a varsity football team from 1902 to 1904 and won "state championships" in each of those seasons. With its passage of the Buckman Act in 1905, the Florida Legislature abolished the coeducational Florida State College and rededicated its Tallahassee campus as the all-women Florida Female College for the 1905 fall term, ending the football program. The college's name was officially changed to "Florida State College for Women" in 1909.
During the same 1905 reorganization mandated by the Buckman Act, four smaller state-supported colleges were abolished and their assets and academic programs consolidated to form the new "University of the State of Florida," a new all-male university located in Gainesville. Florida State College's last coach, Jack Forsythe, became the first coach of the new University of the State of Florida football team in 1906. The name of the new men's university was officially shortened to the "University of Florida" in 1909. The university has fielded an officially recognized and sponsored varsity football team every season since 1906, with the exception of 1943, when World War II manpower shortages precluded most intercollegiate athletics.
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