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SEC Sports
Scott Stricklin: My scheduling tweet has generated conversation
Did his tweeting pay off?
247sports.com
Florida Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin used Twitter on Tuesday to extend an invitation to other Power Five programs for future potential football matchups.
Stricklin appeared on The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss why he did so on Wednesday.
"We've been spending a lot of time recently on football scheduling and that can be challenging," Stricklin said, "and we really want to make sure that all of our colleagues out there, and other schools, knew what our intentions were. And I just wanted to publicly kind of state those intentions; I had no idea with create a firestorm like it has from a fan perspective. I guess I should have guessed that, but it has generated some conversation with other schools which is what I was hoping it would do. And we'll see if any of those bear fruit."
Florida is scheduled to play USF on the road in 2021 and at home in 2022 and 2025. Florida also hosts Utah in 2022, then will travel to Utah in 2023. The Gators also have a home-and-home scheduled with Miami, hosting the Hurricanes in 2024 and traveling to Miami in 2025. Colorado is up next, with Florida set to travel to Boulder in 2029 a year after hosting the Buffaloes in Gainesville. Then the monster showdown with Texas arrives, with the Longhorns coming to Gainesville in 2030 and the Gators going to Austin in 2031.
The obvious spots on the schedule Florida is likely looking to fill are in 2026 and 2027, as Florida State is currently the only nonconference opponent on the schedule in those years.
"What's been happening the last three decades in college football is you have a home schedule where half your games are really high quality and another half a wonder your fans look at and they see is not as good as the others," Stricklin said. "And over time, I think that erodes the value of what you're asking your fans to come and support in our stadiums. And so by scheduling more of these high caliber opponents, obviously I think it's what's best for the players and I think it's something the fans want. On top of that, I think it's what's best for college football.
"You look at the games that we've had this year that have generated a ton of interest, whether it was the Florida-Miami game in Week Zero, Auburn and Oregon that you referenced, LSU-Texas; those games, people are still talking about those games weeks later. And so, the ability to schedule more of them I think it's something that's good for college football."
The Florida athletic director went on to explain that the push for bowl eligibility has made some teams hesitant to schedule the Gators.
"One of the challenges we have is, you know, some schools are worried just about being bowl eligible and that threshold right now is to win six games," Stricklin said. "And they're trying to schedule to win six games, and I think that, you know, people understand that in our business. But I don't know that that approach is really good for our game and so this is something that, at the University of Florida, I think it's really important we try to give our fans as good values as we can.
"The season ticket holder is an important part of that; we want them to look at the opportunity to buy season tickets to come to The Swamp every year as providing really excellent value for them, and scheduling better games, having a good team which coach Mullen is obviously doing a great job of and providing a great experience when they get here they are the keys to making sure that they see that value."
