University of Florida
The Academics
Location: Gainesville, FL
Type of School: Public
Total Student Population: 51,474
Undergrads: 34,654
Demographics: 8% Asian; 10% Black; 15% Hispanic; 66% White; 1% International
Sex Ratio: 46% male; 54% female
%age of Natives: 96% are FloridianRanking: 47th among Full Research Universities
AVG SAT of admitted kids: 1300
Endowment: $977,394,000
CURRENT CONFERENCES: Southeastern (all sports)Football stadium capacity: 88,548
Men's Basketball capacity: 12,000
Women's Basketball capacity: 12,000
Most notable money sport: Football
The University of Florida is the flagship public university in the state, and to most people, and to Playboy magazine this is the type of school it is:
Or seeing girls who put stuff like this on their shirts:
Well, sure, they party hard, but the school is no joke from the books. Yes, this is a VERY POPULAR SCHOOL, arguably the most popular school to get in the country right now, because of the hot girls who will drop their panties during parties when they're crunk, the power of their sports, but more important than any of those things really, yes really, the academics are really good and getting better. In fact, because of its rising popularity among Floridians, and even nationwide (just imagine that possibly over a third of all applicants are applying for 6% of the available slots,) the University of Florida capped their Freshman class number to 6,600, and only accept about 10,000 students a year out of an applicant base of 25,000 or more kids, and it grows each year. Back in my day, over half of all applicants got in here, now, that's not the case. Part of capping their freshman class base makes their school just more desirable and better of course. It is a long term goal to be one of the Top Five Public Universities in the US, since they believe that they're already better than the likes of Georgia Tech, Illinois, Wisconsin, UC-San Diego, UC-Davis, UC-Irvine, and William and Mary and they're on their way to being better than all of these schools if things play out right. In short, they want to be like another Michigan, another Virginia, another Berkeley, and another UCLA.
Academically in the graduate level, Florida is a consistent Top 50 school in Law, Medicine, Business, Education, and one of the Top 25 in Engineering perennially, adding to its academic clout.
Athletically, football is king here, where they've claimed three national championships in the last 15 years, and have three Heisman winners to their credit. The men's basketball teams have been to three Final Fours in the last 15 years, and won two consecutive national championships. Women's basketball has had some moments and some WNBA stars once were Gators, but it's not really a forte for them per se. Among olympic sports, the Gators are still chomping SEC championships left and right from baseball to XC and golf, where they won four national titles and they've won four more in women's tennis. In short, they're damn good.
Why Florida should be in the Big Ten
As an academic AND an athletic fit. This is a dream. I think I mentioned every reason for them to be in. Second, isn't this University of Utopia? Nice climate, good school, and some of the rated R perks I mentioned?
Why Florida should not be in the Big Ten
Well, let's stop drinking Kool Aid for a second and hit reality. First, the Big Ten is in the midwest and the northern part of the US. Florida is in the Southeast. If BC before our hypothetical expansion of UConn and Rutgers was the lone dot on the map, Florida will be in a worse spot.
Second, the Gators are the face of the SEC and a very important academic piece for their conference which really doesn't have much academic clout at all after you take UF, Vandy, and UGA out of the picture. Florida basically is one of THE faces of the SEC and they already have some nice TV deals as it is despite not having their own network per se.
Third, the rivalries that Florida enjoys against Georgia, and Tennessee are likely good bye if they decide to go to the Big Ten. In fact, they could be banned from the schedule of every SEC school in every sport. That would hurt their athletic program if anything. So, if Florida comes in the Big Ten, you may want to snag another school from the south to help mitigate this and expand to as many as 16 teams.
Final Verdict
If Florida were located in Ohio, I'd invite them today. Now. Stat. Otherwise if I'm the Big Ten expansion committee, I'd hold onto an invite unless I want to expand to 14 or 16 teams, and definitely, another southern school should be taken so the SEC's power will be diminished from a conference wide ban on the new southern Big Ten schools.
Florida alumni
Steve Spurrier (Class of 1967)
Won the Heisman in 1966 as a QB; was the Head Coach at Duke where he won the ACC regular season title; at Florida where he led the Gators to a national title in 1996, and is now the don at South Carolina, after he took a two year stint with the Washington Deadskins.
Emmitt Smith (Class of 1996)
1989 SEC POY; 8x Pro Bowl Halfback for the Dallas Cowboys; 2010 Hall of Fame Inductee
Stanley Benton, a/k/a Stat Quo (Class of 2000)
Rap artist, Majored in Economics and International Relations at UFL. Yes he graduated.
Erin Andrews (Class of 2000)
ESPN Sports Reporter, mostly for college football and men's college hoops.
Abby Wambach (Class of 2002)
All American soccer player; won the Gold Medal in the 2004 Olympics.. And for American pro soccer here, she plays for DC!
David Lee (Class of 2005)
Was an All-SEC player at Florida; more famous for being the star player and de-facto franchise player (until LeBron, Dwyane and Chris supposedly come) and All Star Center of the New York Knicks.
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