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Cal Schedules Home and Home Football Series With Florida

February 7, 2020
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Cal and Florida announced Friday that the schools will play a home-and-home football series in 2026 and 2027, marking the first time the teams will meet on the gridiron in more than 45 years. Cal will travel to Gainesville, Fla. on Sept. 19, 2026, before Florida makes its first-ever visit to Berkeley on Sept. 4, 2027.

Both previous meetings between the teams took place in Florida with the Gators winning 21-17 on Sept. 14, 1974, in Gainesville, and 41-13 on Sept. 13, 1980, in Tampa.

Cal is 11-11-2 all-time against SEC schools with the Golden Bears most recently sweeping Ole Miss in a home-and-home series in 2017 and 2019.

Cal finished the 2019 season with an 8-5 overall record and won four of five games to close out the year including victories at Stanford and UCLA, and vs. Illinois in the Redbox Bowl. The Bears have improved their record in each of the last two seasons under head coach Justin Wilcox and tied for second in the Pac-12 North last year for their highest finish since the Pac-12 split into North and South divisions in 2011.

Ticket information for the two games against Florida will be announced at a later date. For information on 2020 season tickets or placing a deposit for Cal football membership, visit calbea.rs/20fbtickets, or call (800) GO BEARS (462-3277) and press 3 to contact a Gold Standard service representative.

Additional updates to Cal's future non-conference schedules are expected to be announced in the near future.
 
Cal-Florida Series History
Sept. 14, 1974 – at Florida 21, Cal 17 (Gainesville, Fla.)
Sept. 13, 1980 – at Florida 41, Cal 13 (Tampa, Fla.)
 

Discussion from...

Cal Schedules Home and Home Football Series With Florida

4,628 Views | 5 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by OskiDeLaHoya
RJABear
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Should be fun.

Florida seldom plays out of conference games outside the state of Florida.
calBlitz
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RJABear said:

Should be fun.

Florida seldom plays out of conference games outside the state of Florida.
This is understatement. From 1992 to 2017, Florida played exactly one (2017 Michigan at Arlington TX) out of conference game outside of Florida (I'm not counting Bowl games).

Given the above history, I'm wondering why Florida is agreeing to come to Cal?
pasadenaorbust
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That is great news once again. Should be a very good series, hopefully. In that last game, the 41 - 13 Florida win in 1980...I checked my old newspaper clippings of that game, and Rich Campbell through for 422 yards, but the Bears only managed 13 points off of his performance.
75bear
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My favorite line of the press release is "Ticket information for the two games against Florida will be announced at a later date." Were they worried we wanted to buy tickets for a game 6 years away?

I like this series. It will be especially fun to have the SEC visit Berkeley - I can't wait to hear their impression.
OskiDeLaHoya
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calBlitz said:

RJABear said:

Should be fun.

Florida seldom plays out of conference games outside the state of Florida.
This is understatement. From 1992 to 2017, Florida played exactly one (2017 Michigan at Arlington TX) out of conference game outside of Florida (I'm not counting Bowl games).

Given the above history, I'm wondering why Florida is agreeing to come to Cal?


Florida is actively trying to upgrade their OOC schedules. Last October, their AD put out a call on Twitter to other P5 ADs to schedule home-and-home series:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/florida-ad-crowdsources-twitter-in-search-of-future-power-five-home-and-home-opponents-for-gators/amp/

Conventional wisdom is that the College Football Playoffs will eventually expand to 8 teams, with five P5 champions, one G5 team and two at-large teams. I am speculating that teams that play fewer than ten P5 teams in their schedule will have a hard time getting in as an at-large. Pac-12, Big-10 and Big-12 teams play 9 conference games. Most schools in all three conferences play at least one more P5 team OOC.
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