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The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as the “Gator Nation.” The Gators compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and are consistently ranked among the top college sports programs in the United States. The University of Florida currently fields teams in nine men’s sports and twelve women’s sports.^[2]

All Florida Gators sports teams compete in NCAA Division I,^[3] and 20 of the 21 Gators teams compete in the SEC.^[4] The sole University of Florida sports team that does not play in the SEC is the women’s lacrosse team, which joined the American Athletic Conference beginning in the 2019 lacrosse season because the SEC does not sponsor competition in the sport.^[5] The University of Florida was one of the thirteen charter members who joined to form the new Southeastern Conference in 1932.^[6] Previously, the university was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1912 to 1921^[7] and the Southern Conference from 1922 until the SEC began play in the fall of 1933.^[8]

All Florida Gators sports teams have on-campus facilities, and most are located on or near Stadium Road on the north side of campus, including Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for football;^[9] the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center for basketball,^[10][11] gymnastics,^[12] swimming and diving,^[13] indoor track and field,^[14] and volleyball;^[15] and James G. Pressly Stadium for soccer^[16] and outdoor track and field.^[17] The Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium, the Condron Ballpark, and the Donald R. Dizney Stadium for lacrosse are located on Hull Road on the southwestern side of the campus.^[18][19][20] The Mark Bostick Golf Course and Scott Linder Stadium for tennis are located on S.W. Second Avenue on the northwestern side of the campus.^[21][22][23]

The Florida Gators athletic program is administered by the University Athletic Association, Inc. (UAA), a private non-profit corporation that reports to the president of the university and its board of trustees.^[24] For the 2014–15 school year, the UAA had an operating budget of $103,310,001, projected revenues of $104,064,487, and made a $3.5 million contribution to the university’s general fund.^[25] Scott Stricklin has been Florida’s athletic director since 2016.

Awards and records[edit]

Beginning in the early 1990s, the Florida Gators has been recognized as one of the premier athletic programs in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and one of the best in the nation. The SEC has awarded an All-Sports Trophy to the best overall sports program in the conference since 1984, and Florida has won the award 28 times as of 2023. Florida is the only school in the SEC and one of four schools nationally to have won a national championship in the football, men’s basketball, and baseball. Every year since 1993, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has recognized the Gators athletic program as one of the ten best overall Division I athletic programs in the country in its annual NACDA Directors’ Cup standings, including as runners-up on four occasions.^[26] The men’s athletic program was also the winner of the 2010–11 and 2011–12 Capital One Cup; the women’s athletic program won the Capital One Cup in 2013–14, and both programs have placed in the top five in the standings on several other occasions.

Among the Gators’ recent national championships, the Florida Gators men’s basketball team won the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournaments, and the Florida Gators football team won 2007 BCS National Championship Game in football, all in the span of 366 days.^[27] Florida is the only school in NCAA Division I history to hold the outright men’s basketball and football championships during the same school year. In January 2009, the Gators football team won the 2009 BCS National Championship Game with a 24–14 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners.^[28] The Florida Gators baseball team took home its first championship at the 2017 NCAA championship, defeating rival SEC foe the LSU Tigers in two games. The Gators won the NCAA men’s indoor track and field championship in three consecutive seasons in 2010, 2011 and 2012,^[29] the NCAA women’s swimming and diving team national championship in 2010,^[30][31] the NCAA women’s tennis championship in 2011, 2012 and 2017,^[32] the NCAA men’s outdoor track and field championship in 2012, 2013 and 2016, the NCAA women’s gymnastics championship in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and the NCAA softball championships in 2014 and 2015.^[33] Individual Gator athletes have won 279 individual NCAA championships in boxing, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field. In 2017, Florida won the baseball national championship for the first time. The Gators swept LSU in the best of three national title series. This earned the university a total of 39 national team championships. Additionally, this put the University of Florida in exclusive company. With the 2017 baseball national championship, Florida became only the fourth school in history to win national championships in football, men’s basketball, and baseball. Florida, along with Michigan, Ohio State, and UCLA are the only schools to ever achieve triple crown status. This also put Florida in a category by itself. Florida is the only Southeastern Conference school to accomplish this feat, as well, Florida is the only school in history to have achieved triple crown status in such a short span of time. Florida’s first national championships in each of the big three sports (football, men’s basketball, and baseball) were won in the span of just 21 years.^[34]

NCAA all-sports rankings[edit]

The University of Florida has been ranked among the nation’s top ten NCAA Division I athletic programs every year since 1983–84, an overall ranking that includes both men’s and women’s sports – the only college sports program ranked in the top ten in the United States for the last 39 consecutive years.^[35] The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has recognized the University of Florida as ranking among the top seven Division I programs in its NACDA Directors’ Cup standings every year since the NACDA and USA Today began awarding the cup in 1993–94. The 2022–23 academic year marked the Gators’ 39th consecutive year ranked among the nation’s top ten best overall collegiate athletic programs, and the twenty-second consecutive year ranked among the top seven Division I programs in the NACDA Directors’ Cup standings.^[26] Only one other Division I athletic program has matched that feat, and Florida has achieved this record while fielding fewer sports teams than many of the other perennially top-ranked collegiate athletic programs.^[26] In the 29 years of the NACDA Directors’ Cup, the Gators have finished fifth or better in 22 years, and have never finished lower than seventh; the only other program ranked among the top ten Division I programs every year since 1993–94 is the Stanford Cardinal sports program of Stanford University.

NCAA Division I all-sports rankings^[26]

SEC All-Sports Trophy[edit]

Through the end of the 2022–23 school year, the Florida Gators have won 261 Southeastern Conference (SEC) team championships, the most in conference history.^[36][37]

The SEC All-Sports Trophy began in 1973 as the Bernie Moore Trophy and tabulated the league’s best men’s sports program.^[38] In 1983, the SEC also began recognizing the best women’s sports program in the conference, as well as the best overall SEC sports program.^[39] In 1994, the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group assumed responsibility for awarding the trophies.^[40] In the 50-year history of the awards, Florida has won 24 women’s trophies, 22 men’s trophies, and 28 overall SEC All-Sports trophies.^[40]

SEC rival Georgia won the overall 2005–06 All-Sports Trophy to snap Florida’s record streak at fourteen straight (1990–91 through 2004–05).^[40] Florida reclaimed the SEC All-Sports Trophy for the 2006–07 school year, and the Gators have held on to the overall all-sports trophies in every year until Texas A&M ended their streak in 2018–19.^[40] The Gators are the first of two SEC sports programs to earn the overall, men’s, and women’s all-sports trophies in a single year (the other being Tennessee in the 2022–23 season), and have swept all three trophies sixteen times.^[40]

Championships[edit]

NCAA team championships[edit]

In their history of intercollegiate competition, the University of Florida’s varsity athletic teams have won 47 national championships (including 42 sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), two by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), two by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), and one by the Bowl Alliance).^[34][41][42] Florida is one of only two Division I schools to hold both major men’s championships (football and men’s basketball) at the same time (as the 2006 BCS football champions and the 2006 and 2007 NCAA men’s basketball champions), and was the first to do so.^[b][43]