Florida to square off with Oregon State in Las Vegas Bowl

Florida is headed to Vegas! The Gators will face off with Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 17.

The Florida Gators will play the Oregon State Beavers in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. EST on ABC Sports.

Rumors began to swirl about this bowl game for the Gators weeks ago, but it wasn’t made official until Sunday afternoon, and there was plenty of drama surrounding that announcement. Action Network’s Brett McMurphy broke the news but quickly indicated that a decision had to be made within the conference before things were set in stone. The bowl officials first confirmed Oregon State’s participation in the game and later confirmed that Florida has accepted the invitation.

The current agreement has tie-ins with the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12. The Big Ten and SEC alternate sending a team each year.

This marks Florida’s first-ever appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl despite its 30-year history. The distance shouldn’t deter too many Gators fans from buying tickets, but there’s an obvious disadvantage to Florida playing a bowl game as a de facto road team.

There are a number of questions regarding which UF players will sit out of the game, but those should get answered in the coming weeks. Florida has less than two weeks until the Dec. 17 date of the bowl game, so it’s a relatively quick turnaround compared to most bowl games.

That likely means that Florida won’t get a full 15 extra practices, and it’s hard to say exactly how this affects the recruiting schedule, but it should squeeze the schedule a bit.

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