GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- All Gators has obtained Florida's 2024 football schedule, via multiple sources, ahead of the Southeastern Conference's Wednesday night revealing of each of its member school's calendar for next season.
For the Gators, the SEC has finalized the order of a slate of opponents that is widely considered daunting entering Billy Napier's third season as Florida's head coach. All but one of UF's opponents hail from the Power 5 conferences.
Find Florida's full 2024 football schedule below.
The SEC's short-term maintaining of an eight-game conference schedule despite its 2024 move from 14 to 16 teams, with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma imminent, allowed Florida to honor its previously scheduled out-of-conference matchups.
The elimination of the SEC East and West divisions, however, shakes up the Gators' in-conference docket. No longer will Florida take on the same six teams plus two rotating squads in annual rivalry play, although future permanent matchup formatting currently remains unresolved.
But for 2024, Florida will face four former members of the West in Texas A&M (coming off a 7-5, 4-4 SEC season), Mississippi State (5-7, 1-7 SEC), LSU (9-3, 6-2 SEC) and Ole Miss (10-2, 6-2 SEC). The Aggies and Bulldogs will feature first-year head coaches in those games, with Mike Elko leading A&M and Jeff Lebby in charge of MSU.
Expected as one of if not Florida's only permanent rival, the Gators will take on the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville on Nov. 2, following the team's second bye week of the season. UF will be the designated away team for the neutral site battle in Jacksonville.
A trip to Rocky Top in continuation of Florida's rivalry with Tennessee, a home contest against a Kentucky squad that has beaten UF three seasons in a row and a road matchup with first-year conference member Texas round out the Gators' SEC slate.
Florida's upcoming bouts with Miami, Samford and UCF are the products of individual series agreements between the respective programs.
UF and UM agreed to a home-and-home series for the 2024-25 seasons following the Week 0, neutral site matchup between the teams in 2019, and the Gators vs. Knights regular-season meetings long-demanded by UCF fans will finally launch with the first game of a two-for-one series. The succeeding contests will be held in 2030 in Orlando and 2033 in Gainesville.
Florida will host Samford for a second time after its 70-52 victory over the Bulldogs in Dan Mullen's final home game as the program's head coach in 2021. UF agreed to pay Samford $525,000 for each matchup, according to FBSchedules.com.
Of course, Florida's regular-season ending bout at Florida State will be in continuation of the annual Sunshine Showdown, a series in which the Seminoles possess a two-game winning streak.
According to the SEC, home and away designations for the 2024 season were created under the instruction that no team will travel to the same location to which it played a non-neutral site game in 2023.
The 2024 SEC Championship Game will feature the two top teams in the conference standings at the end of the regular season, as a result of the removal of divisions.
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