The 2022 Florida-Florida State game in Tallahassee has been moved up a day and will now be played on Friday, Nov. 25, the ACC and Florida State announced on Monday. The game is expected to air in primetime on either ESPN or ABC.
In a press release, UF said that “The 2023 matchup in Gainesville, controlled by SEC television contracts, will return to the Saturday following Thanksgiving.”
This will be the Gators’ first regular season game to not be played on a Saturday since a Thursday game at Mississippi State in 1992.
The Gators and Seminoles have met 65 times before and had played in 62 consecutive years before the SEC elected to play a conference-only schedule in 2020.
Florida holds a 37-26-2 advantage in the series, including wins in the last three meetings. Most recently, the Gators defeated the Seminoles, 24-21, to clinch bowl eligibility in 2021.
The Florida-Florida State game has traditionally been played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
However, with television contracts paying schools and conferences millions of dollars per year, the best interests of ESPN sometimes take precedence over time-honored traditions. The UF-FSU game will become the latest tradition to go by the wayside, at least for one year.