With the late addition of another bowl game, which is yet to be named but will be played in Frisco, Texas, there are now 42 bowl games this season, including the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six. Unless you’re a sicko like me with absolutely nothing better to do for the next month than watch college football, you likely won’t be able to catch all or even most of these games.
That’s why Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger put together a handy list ranking this year’s bowl games by watchability to help you sort through the games that are interesting and the ones that are not so much. Florida is staying in-state to take the short drive down to Tampa and play UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl, an intriguing matchup between Florida schools, especially in light of the controversy in scheduling a regular-season series between the two.
Dellenger ranks that game right near the middle of the pack at No. 22, which seems fair considering the fact that both teams had down years, with UF sitting at just 6-6 and the Knights at 8-4. Here’s his breakdown.
Watch it because … it seems more like a rivalry game than any other bowl. Two in-state schools separated by just 120 miles who have, until recently, been involved in media spats over one school (Florida) not wanting to schedule a game against the other. Ultimately, they did get that game scheduled—three games, in fact (2024 and ’33 in Gainesville; ’30 in Orlando). Depending on which side you ask, the game is for bragging rights.
Early line: Florida -7.5
Weird fact: This is just the third meeting between these two, the last of which came in 2006—a 42–0 Gators win.
Though this isn’t exactly a rivalry historically, as the teams have only played three times, the two schools have certainly grown some animosity toward each other in recent years, especially with UCF’s unprecedented run of success and impending Power Five status, as it is set to join the Big 12 at some undisclosed point in the relatively near future.
It’s a bit hard to believe the Gators are more than a touchdown favorite in this one considering the way that they ended the season and the fact that they’re currently led by an interim in Greg Knox before new coach Billy Napier fully takes over after the bowl game. But Florida will try to earn in-state bragging rights in a rare pre-Christmas bowl game.
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