Thoughts of the Day: June 27, 2026

A few thoughts to jump start your Saturday morning:

Thirty seems to be a very good number for Florida football. For example, in 1996 Steve Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy, the Gators went 9-2 and beat Georgia Tech 27-10 in the Orange Bowl, putting an unceremonious end to the legendary career of Bobby Dodd. Thirty years later, Spurrier coached the Gators to a 12-1 record that included Florida’s fourth straight SEC championship, a 52-20 humiliation of Florida State and Bobby Bowden in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship and the 1996 Heisman Trophy for Danny Wuerffel.

The 1966 season in so many ways was an announcement that Florida football was officially here to stay. Bear Bryant had called Florida a “sleeping giant” but Spurrier represented the great awakening. Spurrier captured the nation’s imagination as the one quarterback you would want on your team if you needed a defy the odds fourth quarter comeback. The late, great Atlanta Journal columnist Furman Bisher wrote, “Blindfolded, with his back to the wall, with his hands tied behind him, Steve Spurrier would be a two-point favorite at his own execution.”

Thirty years later, Spurrier forever turned Florida’s back on the “wait ‘til next year” cry that for decades defined the futility of failing to win the SEC. SEC titles were becoming an expectation, not a pipe dream, but a national championship trumped even winning the SEC. The son of a preacher (Spurrier) who won the Heisman, won the national championship with another son of a preacher (Wuerffel) winning the Heisman.

In the 30 years since that magical 1996 season, Florida football has had its highs – two national titles in three years by Urban Meyer, a Heisman by another son of a preacher (Tim Tebow) – but too many lows highlighted by a revolving door of coaches since 2011 have turned back the clock to the sleeping giant days. Charged with another awakening is Jon Sumrall, who has taken on the rebuild with a systematic fill in the gaps approach.  He still hasn’t coached a game at Florida, but in less than six months it seems there are not only fewer holes in the roster but more speculation that the Gators could very well be a team nobody wants to play in 2026.

Writes Bill Connelly of ESPN about the upcoming season, “So if the defense clicks like I expect, a good season is on the table. And if (Aaron) Philo also thrives, there is at worst top-20 potential.” At worst, top-20 potential. Let that sink in. What is the best case scenario here? Could the Gators contend? Could they win nine or more games this year? Nine will put them in College Football Playoff contention. A ten win SEC team might be impossible to keep out of the playoff.

A dream? Yeah, but so was 1966 and so was 1996. Good things just might come in thirty year increments when it comes to Florida football.

THE CASE FOR DENZEL ABERDEEN AND A FIFTH SEASON

As expected, the NCAA will be busy in court in the days and weeks ahead as lawsuits are filed across the country challenging its exclusion of last year’s fourth-year seniors in its new 5-for-5 rule. The new rule allows a third-year junior from 2026 two more years of eligibility but a fourth-year senior is out of eligibility.  

The rule lacks fairness which is why attorney Darren Heitner, a Florida undergrad and law graduate, said in an email to me, “That's precisely what we are arguing in the now pending case in Ohio and what we will be arguing elsewhere.”

Denzel Aberdeen has petitioned the NCAA for a waiver that will grant him a fifth year to play basketball for the Gators next season. There are no certainties when it comes to dealing with the NCAA, so while Aberdeen’s case stands a good chance of a positive decision, he has to be prepared to take legal action. Based on previous NCAA inconsistencies in the waiver decisions, Aberdeen should have no trouble winning in court.

Speaking to Joe Tipton of On3, Florida coach Todd Golden commented, “We’re ready to take legal action if needed. Our hope is that there’s some common sense that comes into play before that. And they look at a guy that’s 22 years old, so way younger than a lot of these guys that are still playing college that, again, is back working for his undergraduate degree within his five-year clock. There’s a lot of things that are going his way. So, we’ll do what we need to do to make sure he’s supported properly.”

UF SOFTBALL: GATORS LAND ALL-AMERICAN TRANSFER

Tim Walton picked up an important piece of the 2027 puzzle this week when he landed former LSU All-American Tori Edwards from the transfer portal. As a redshirt freshman, Edwards hit .383 with 18 homers and 73 RBI, earning SEC Freshman of the Year, All-SEC and All-America honors. Last season, she hit .284 with 12 home runs and 45 RBI.

Edwards figures to start at first base in a revamped Florida infield that includes Gabia Comia at second base, incoming freshman Nina Carcone at shortstop, and incoming freshman slugger Kennedy Bradley at third.

Edwards is the second transfer signed by Walton. Earlier he landed Duke catcher Kaira Rodriguez.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: As the Protect College Sports Act inches toward the finish line that will make it the law of the land, there are many tight sphincters in Tallahassee and among the Florida State faithful scattered throughout the state and country. Mired in nearly $500 million in athletic department debt, FSU is feeling the financial squeeze. With very little relief being offered by the Atlantic Coast Conference and a proposed private equity scheme spinning like a tire in red clay mud on a rainy day, FSU is in desperate need of a helping hand up from its cousins in the more prosperous Southeastern Conference and Big Ten.

Forget that if and when the new law passed.

A very interesting provision of the Protect College Sports Act is it prevents expansion by conferences that earn at least $700 million in revenue. There are four of them – the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12. Not only does that crush the upward mobility dreams of FSU, Clemson, Miami and others who wish to leave their current confines for bites of the expensive apples that hang from the trees of the SEC and Big Ten, but it also prevents Group of Six (American, Sun Belt, Mountain West, Pac-12, Conference USA and MAC) schools from leaving their underpaying confines for a more prosperous league. The bill, as written today, also prevents Notre Dame from joining a conference whose revenues are at least $700 million.

Expansion has taken the Southeastern Conference from 10 to 12 teams in 1992 when Arkansas (formerly of the Southwest Conference) and South Carolina (independent) joined, to 14 in 2012 when Texas A&M and Missouri (both from the Big 12) were added, to 16 in 2024 when Texas and Oklahoma left the Big 12. At 16, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey believes he has the perfect league put together in a nice geographic footprint that both the networks and fan bases find appealing. Revenues escalated to more than $1 billion for the 2024-25 athletic year resulting in distribution of $72.4 million to its member schools. If current projections hold true, then there will be a steady increase until each school receives a payout of more than $100 million by the year 2030. The SEC has a lucrative contract with ESPN/ABC that will be rewritten, providing even more revenue.

The Big Ten, which has expanded from 10 to 18 teams and has taken on a coast-to-coast footprint with Maryland and Rutgers on the east coast and UCLA, Southern Cal, Oregon and Washington on the west coast, brought in more than $1.3 billion for 2024-25, paying its member schools $76.1 million each. Like the SEC, the Big Ten is on a clear path to its schools getting a yearly paycheck of more than $100 million.

The staggering numbers of the SEC and Big Ten have the ACC and Big 12 gasping for air. The ACC eked past $800 million in revenue for 2024-25, the Big 12 $710 million. Neither the ACC nor the Big 12 are going to see revenues increase to anything close to those of the SEC and Big Ten. Their network contracts pale in comparison and attendance figures add to the problem. In 2025, average attendance at an SEC game was 80,362 and 64,662 for the Big Ten. In the Big 12, average attendance was 48,003, the ACC just 47,312.

The numbers don’t lie which clearly explains why FSU, Clemson and Miami are all but begging their big brothers (SEC and Big Ten) to welcome them in as refugees. Seeing the cost of doing business increasing on a daily basis and league revenues failing to match athletic inflation, even North Carolina, Duke and Virginia from the ACC and Kansas from the Big 12 have put out feelers that they would be amenable to invitations to leave for greener pastures.

Unless the SEC and Big Ten decide to expand prior to the implementation of the Protect College Sports Act, there will be no lifelines extended for the ACC and Big 12 schools that want out. Of course, we can expect lawsuits, always the case when little brother types feel wronged or cut out but lawsuits take time and time does not favor Florida State, deepest in athletic department debt of the ACC and Big 12 schools that desperately want to change leagues.

Sometimes we laugh when we hear jokes that FSU may be forced to resort to holding car washes and bake sales to make a dent in the crippling debt but nobody seems to be offering any practical solutions. Are there practical solutions? That might be the more appropriate question to ask right now. If the possibility of leaving for another conference, particularly the SEC, is off the table, then FSU can only look back to 1992 when it chose the ACC over an invitation to join the SEC. It probably seemed like a good idea at the moment, but this is now, that was then.