S
SEC Sports
Florida cancels multiple future series amid SEC's move to nine-game league schedule
Florida has removed three home-and-home series from its future schedules as the SEC prepares for nine-game league schedules to begin in 2026.
247sports.com
Florida has agreed in principle to cancel its future home-and-home series with Arizona State (2028, 2031), and has fully terminated its contracts to North Carolina State (2026, 2032) and California (2026-27), as a result of the Southeastern Conference's plan to enact a nine-game league schedule beginning in 2026, multiple sources informed Swamp247.
UF announced in 2019 that it had agreed to a pair of matchups with Arizona State, and revealed in 2020 that it had agreed to a series with both North Carolina State and California.
The agreements for this trio of home-and-homes each included a clause allowing Florida to cancel the games without penalty should the SEC move to a nine-game conference schedule.
The potential for other cancellations, or lack thereof, of future Florida football out-of-conference matchups is currently considered "fluid," given the recency of the SEC's decision to change its league scheduling format, Swamp247 has learned.
Therefore, Florida's future home-and-home matchups with Colorado (2028-29) and Notre Dame (2031-32) currently remain under contract. Those series were respectively agreed upon in 2019 and 2021.
UF athletic director Scott Stricklin also suggested in August that Florida intends to maintain its two-for-one series with UCF, with matchups scheduled in Orlando in 2030 and Gainesville in 2033. The Gators beat the Knights, 24-13, in the first leg of the series during the 2024 season in Gainesville.
That agreement, reached in 2021, included a clause to negotiate mutually agreeable, potential alternative dates in good faith should the SEC move to a nine-game league schedule.
"If we're going to make adjustments, we wouldn't start with those. We would try to play those," Stricklin told the Orlando Sentinel.
To pair with facing nine SEC teams yearly, the conference will require member programs to schedule at least one additional high-quality non-conference game from the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten or Big 12 conferences, or Notre Dame, each season.
Florida's annual, in-state rivalry with Florida State, of the ACC, is not expected to be impacted by the SEC's change to a nine-game league schedule.
UF head coach Billy Napier on Aug. 27 stated that the significance of the rivalry would prevent it from facing cancellation.
"That game is historical in relevance and certainly it's not going away," Napier said.
"Not only would our people not let that happen, but their admiration, their alumni, their fanbase would feel the same way. We're going to play the game regardless. If they told us we were going to play 11 conference games, we would still play Florida-Florida State. It's one of the greatest, if not the greatest rivalry of all time and pretty special for both teams."
Stricklin, who in June signed a three-year contract extension to remain Florida's athletic director through Oct. 31, 2030, recently commented publicly on the conference's forthcoming schedule shift, citing the SEC's national popularity as a driving force in the league making the move.
"It felt like the right thing to do for the long-term benefit of the Southeastern Conference," Stricklin said in August, via on WRUF. "You think about the strength of this league, it is behind the [National Football League] on a per-broadcast standpoint, the second-most viewed sports entity in this country. SEC football is ahead of the [National Basketball Association], ahead of Major League Baseball, [National Hockey League], you go down the list.
"As strong as it is, there will come a time when the SEC will talk about positioning itself in the marketplace and so the more we lean into that strength, people have an insatiable appetite for SEC football."
