Florida’s game with USF may be the last of sort amid scheduling adjustments

The air in the Heavener Football Center stood still. The freezeframe came as Florida coach Billy Napier listened intently while essentially asked if he’d want to continue scheduling teams like South Florida, who the Gators face Saturday.

Good question. Momma’s recipe for making a College Football Playoff team doesn’t really include facing difficult Group of 5 foes. But cupcakes make the grocery list. And in the past, schools like Florida would pay steep sums to shuttle in punching bags they’d beat up in front of home crowds. UF’s paying USF $500,000, for that matter, to come to Gainesville this year.

But scheduling predictably OK Group of 5 teams — although No. 13 UF could’ve never known what USF would be now — may cease in the near future, especially considering the latest obstacle the Southeastern Conference added to its contender-hardening course.

On Aug. 21, the SEC announced it will play a nine-game conference schedule starting next season. The conference joins the Big Ten and Big 12 in shifting towards creating more familiar matchups, with an emphasis on strengthening competition. But a salient difference lies in the details. For SEC squads, one of their three non-conference opponents must be a Power 4 team.

​​”Adding a ninth SEC game underscores our universities’ commitment to delivering the most competitive football schedule in the nation,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a news release in August. “This format protects rivalries, increases competitive balance and, paired with our requirement to play an additional Power opponent, ensures SEC teams are well prepared to compete and succeed in the College Football Playoff.”

So Napier looked around the conference room, as if pleading with the walls to provide an answer so he could shrink away from the question. Reasonably, contests like Florida vs. USF won’t happen anymore.

The Bulls beat No. 25 Boise State 34-7 last week, simultaneously shaving the Broncos’ playoff chances while further legitimizing Ashton Jeanty’s failed Heisman bid. Queue, your upset chef, Byrum Brown.

The tormentor of a quarterback, whose two touchdown runs were eerily similar to those which fashioned Jeanty a household name and top 10 pick, makes the Bulls a larger blip on Florida’s radar than expected. But any thought of South Florida as a rollover should come as a surprise, especially for the UF seniors who will pack into The Swamp Saturday.

Just four Septembers ago, the I-75 schools completed the second leg of a three-game series in Gainesville. Amid a sweltering September evening, where Anthony Richardson and friends barely escaped with a 31-28 win. It’s also worth noting USF went 1-11 in 2022, prompting the hiring of current coach Alex Golesh.

With the former Tennessee offensive coordinator’s counsel, the Bulls have charged back into Group of 5 contention. With the SEC’s scheduling adjustments, Florida and other programs likely hope to avoid matching up against any mid-major within shouting distance of a bowl berth.

“We play whoever they put out there,” Napier said after what felt like minutes of silence. Solid answer, but as he continued, the devil on any Power 4 coach’s shoulder started to slip out: “I think that regardless, take one game away, I mean, we’re talking about the body of work here. [We’re] literally talking about one game, right? So it’s more important to me to focus on the maturity of our team, the leadership of our team.”

Fair. But the point buried within Napier’s coach-speak seminar explains why Power 4 teams, especially those with playoff aspirations, may stop scheduling remotely threatening Group of 5 opponents.

Picture a scale that exists in any coach or athletic director’s mind. Wins over Power 4 teams in non-conference play weigh heavily in the College Football Playoff committee’s eyes. See 2023 Texas, 2022 Ohio State and 2021 Cincinnati. Losses, surprisingly, do as well from time to time. See 2023 Alabama. But no College Football Playoff team has shown up to the dance with a regrettable G5 hookup.

Thus, Indiana State and East Tennessee State grace the schedules of ranked teams. But Florida can find some value in grabbing one last fake cupcake, if you will.

“We got enough to go toe to toe with anybody, but we have to go execute on game day when it counts,” Napier said. “Ultimately, that’s what separates the really good teams from the middle pack.”

Florida wants to be a really good team. Maybe even great. And with eight of 11 remaining games currently slated to be against ranked opponents, a USF team receiving 25 votes in Tuesday’s AP Poll serves as just an added ingredient to the recipe.

Throughout the week’s press conferences, players have emphasized the benefit of playing a well-rounded, strengthened Group of 5 team. It keeps you honest, and USF, if nothing else, will be an honest opponent. The contest also serves as a perfect trial run to get comfortable containing a mobile quarterback, with the likes of Arch Manning, Marcel Reed and the newly minted star Tommy Castellanos, still sitting between Florida and its playoff aspirations.

“[We] go back to work and they get consumed with improving their process, and that’s what the season presents, is a chance to be better at what you do each day. We gotta prepare for the moment, and then, obviously, when you get an opportunity to make a play, go make the play,” Napier said. “This is a huge game for us, and we totally understand the dynamic when it comes to this team.”

The added wrinkle? South Florida is an opponent UF shares with a looming foe: Miami. Next week, the Hurricanes will join the club and host the Bulls, letting both teams scout with a reference point.

But Miami and Florida exist at different stages in the CFP redesign playbook. The ACC, unlike the SEC, has not opted for a heavier conference schedule. The conference also doesn’t require specific non-conference opponents. Prior to the expanded playoff last year, though, no team from the conference had made the postseason tournament since 2020. So to remain competitive with its three greatest rivals, the ACC may follow suit in the near future.

In turn, matchups between strong Group of 5 teams and hefty pocketbooks will cease to exist.

But this was a good week of practice for Florida. And arguing with the benefits of a difficult tuneup game can be a useless point, especially as Napier stumbled in from a practice that ran almost 10 minutes long, gearing up for USF. The Gators will be battle-“tested” in Napier’s words, even before playing a fellow Power 4 team.

“It’s going to be day-by-day,” Florida running back Jadan Baugh said. “First, it starts today. We have practice. An opportunity to go put it on the field. … [The game will be] very competitive.”

But this game may never happen again.