There was a time when the Auburn Tigers and Florida Gators tangled on an annual basis. Those days have been gone for some time.
From 1945-2002 this game was a staple on the schedule. The teams met twice in 2000 when they faced off in the SEC Championship game. The Tigers came out on the losing side in both of those games. Despite Florida owning the series from 1995-2000, Auburn still owns the series 43-39-2.
Since the annual streak ended in 2002, the two schools have met on the football field just four times with Auburn winning the first three. Florida bested the Tigers in 2019, 24-13.
Pat Dooley of Gators Wire discussed this very game in his “12 ways scheduling changes could affect the SEC” for Gators Wire
What Gators Wire Says…
(Some rivalries could be shortchanged)
This includes Florida–LSU, which has become one of the fiercest rivalries in the conference (mostly going back to the hurricane game in 2016). My guess is Florida will lobby to keep that game on an annual basis because it is an automatic big gate.
But the league is going to be trying to figure out how to keep multiple rivalry games together in this new world and it will not be easy. Still, if LSU is no longer a permanent opponent, the two teams would likely play every other year.
(…and Auburn could return)
That was such a big game in the Steve Spurrier era. Certainly, Florida fans were not happy when the other Tigers were dropped from the yearly schedule because it’s the easiest place to get to from Gainesville (other than Jacksonville, of course), but there is a good chance Auburn will come back as one of Florida’s permanent opponents.
Could this be fixed in the near future? With the additions of the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns by 2025, there will be changes to the scheduling. The SEC could go with pods or smaller divisions of four teams. The makeup of those pods could include plenty of variations.
Perhaps the conference decides to go with two eight-team divisions. The conference could move Alabama and Auburn out of the West to bring in the two newcomers. There are a lot of moving parts and likely something that could be ironed out in the near future for scheduling purposes.