Florida Gators add UMass Minutemen to 2016 Football Schedule

By Kevin Kelley -

The Florida Gators have added the UMass Minutemen to their 2016 football schedule, the Palm Beach Post has reported.

Florida will host UMass at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville on a date to be announced. The game will be the first ever between the two schools.

UMass is currently a member of the Colonial Athletic Association in the Football Championship Subdivison (FCS). They are joining the MAC in 2012 and will be eligible for the MAC Championship Game and bowls beginning with the 2013 season.

Listed below is Florida’s non-conference football schedule through 2016:

2012

  • 09/01 – Bowling Green
  • 09/08 – Louisiana-Lafayette
  • 11/17 – Jacksonville State
  • 11/24 – at Florida State

2013

  • 08/31 – Toledo
  • 09/07 – at Miami (FL)
  • 11/23 – Georgia Southern
  • 11/30 – Florida State

2014

  • 08/30 – Idaho
  • 09/06 – Eastern Michigan
  • 11/22 – Eastern Kentucky
  • 11/29 – at Florida State

2015

  • 09/05 – New Mexico State
  • 11/28 – Florida State
  • TBA – Florida Atlantic

2016

  • 09/10 – North Texas
  • 11/26 – at Florida State
  • TBA – UMass

Comments (30)

When will the Gators wash the yellow off thier backs and play a major power ON THE ROAD thats outside Florida?

way to schedule up uf or should i say fu.

I think all the sec teams should have to play at least one november game in the north what a bunch of pansies!

Florida’s scheduling pretty much comes down to money. They want 7 home games every year because of that. The Georgia game causes them to only get 3 SEC home games every other year, and they play at FSU during the even years. They can’t go on the road in other non-conference games and still get 7 home games.

tl;dr: Don’t call Florida scared. Call them greedy.

when was the last time Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa or Illinois played a game in the South in August or September pa? Bring it down South.

by the way pa I am not a gator fan. War Damn Eagle! Auburn has played Syracuse and West Virginia on the road. They do know the way up North but still when do the Big Ten teams (other than Ohio State) come South other than bowl games?

Off the top of my head:

PSU at ‘Bama last year. Michigan in JerryWorld (vs. ‘Bama) next year. Northwestern and Purdue @ Rice this year and last. Iowa @ Arizona (not the “South”, per se, but the desert gets pretty darn hot).

B10 teams travel down south plenty. Only UF doesn’t leave their state for an OOC game (and haven’t in decades). Also, when was the last time an SEC team played in a cold-weather locale in November (or even October), ever?

Northwestern also played @ Vandy.

Quite certain these were all September games.

Now, will any SEC team play in a cold-weather state in November?

At least one good thing about the SEC adding Mizzou is that you folks in the deep south actually have to play football when it isn’t balmy outside every once in a while now (though it seems that the eastern division schools will be the ones who will have to do that; you guys at LSU, Auburn, and ‘Bama will still get away with never having to play a football game when it’s 40 degrees outside).

Most SEC and Big 10 teams play out of conference games in September. The only out of conference games. The only Big 10 team playing an out of conference game in November was Northwestern last week against Rice. So how could any SEC teams play them in the cold?

A few points I’d like to make:

A. Except for those opening weekend neutral site games, OOC games among BCS teams generally are part of home-and-homes. Yeah, Alabama plays at Penn State early in the season, when it’s warmer, but that’s when schedules are more open.

B. If Florida was to play in the North in November, then it would be the Saturday in between the end of the SEC schedule and the FSU game (and in some years, with the SEC championship right after that). Why would they want to do that? Their schedule is tough enough already, they’d lose money, and depending on the team, could lose another game. Really, the only thing they stand to gain is respect from Big Ten fans on the FBSchedules.com board and people of that sort. Florida doesn’t care about that.

C. Purdue and Northwestern at Rice…really? If Florida played at, say, Eastern Michigan in November, people would still give them a hard time for their schedule.

D. SEC teams in cold weather locales? The South isn’t 80 degrees in late November (usually, haha), especially in Kentucky and Tennessee.

E. Why would Florida schedule out-of-state teams when their two biggest non-SEC rivals are in Florida? Yeah, FSU is in the same state, but it’s not like that’s a home game for Florida by any stretch of the imagination.

F. As I said, Florida wants 7 home games. There’s no way to do they only get 3 SEC homes games in odd years and play at FSU in even years. It’s the sad truth that money dominates major college football. If the Michigan-Ohio State game was OOC, would Michigan still play Notre Dame regularly? I know they play Alabama at a neutral site and at Notre Dame next year, but they have 8 home games this year to make up for it.

I’m a Florida fan (as if you couldn’t tell by my dissertation). I’d like them to play major non-conference opponents other than FSU. It just doesn’t make any sense for them to do it. Their SOS is fine in the eyes of the pollsters and computers, and rightfully so.

Michigan in Dallas will be in a dome, that one does not count. I understand the weather in Michigan and Alabama is not the same but it does get cold in the South. I’ve been to games under 40 degrees at Auburn. You are correct about Florida they never leave the state for out of conference.

Florida never leaves the state but that doesn’t mean they don’t play at hostile environments. Regardless, their in-conference games more than make up for it, in my opinion.

You Big Ten people are idiots. You all are just jealous because the SEC whoops a broom up your hole every time they play yall. Bravo stupids.

Yeah Max, we’re jealous of people so immature, illogical, and emotionally undeveloped that they they launch a childish anonymous ad hominem attack when we note their football teams never play in cold weather. Way to go, Max, in burnishing the image the world has of southerners.

And northerners never say anything infantile or insulting to southerners, especially not on the internet.

I didn’t realize that the SEC teams could control the climate of their states. And find me one BCS team who is playing a tough out of conference game besides a rivalry in the end of October or any of November. I will go ahead and tell you no one does that. Not SEC, Big Ten, Pac 12, Big East, or Big 12. Just saying pal. And come down south. Our people actually have manners. And yes I’ve been up north it sucks and the people are rude

To the poster that says no BCS team plays a tough OOC in October or November…you must a new fan to college football. There are many end of season rough and tumble games involving BCS schools late in the year…

Georgia-Georgia Tech
South Carolina-Clemson
Norte Dame- Stanford/USC
even the cowardly Gators manage to play Florida State (but still try and duck Miami whenever they can)
and many times a BCS squad will fly to Hawaii to play a late season game.

Hey Jinzo I believe the guy said besides rivalry games and last time I checked the games you listed were rivalry games. The guy meant that Georgia isn’t gonna play Wisconsin at that time of the year.

There are idiots everywhere, but there is a difference in proportion. I lurk on SEC message boards, and I definitely see a lot more venom and instances of emotion overring logic there than on B10 boards.

I’m with you,Richard…..the majority of SEC fans are nothing but trash talkers…they really don’t get the idea of fairness or respect other leagues or teams. But the ones that do,like Kevin who has created this site,do get and understand the game of football.
The guy who is trying to defend the SEC’s in conference schedule as being “hard enough” is pretty much what you get from a typical SEC fan…
You cannot defend Florida’s lack of a quality OOC schedule or being too cowardly to actually go on the road to play a major team like Texas,USC or Ohio State.
But thank goodness other teams like Georgia,Alabama and even Tenneessee will venture North and West to play good teams. Its much eaiser acknowledging a team like that as legitmate national championship contenders then a team like Felony U who plays nothing but cupcakes.

Richard – Fair enough. Plus, I think Harvey Updyke set us (southern college football fans) back about 10 years, too. haha

Jizno – Come on, man. I said that I’d like to see Florida, “my” team, play some major OOC games. My point was (and still is) that Florida’s schedule is tough enough to put them in the BCS title without playing an additional major non-conference opponent IN ADDITION TO Florida State. Legitimate or not, they’ve proved themselves worthy both times they made it to the NCG in the BCS era.

I’ve already said way too much in this thread, including the reasons why Florida doesn’t go out-of-state for OOC games. (The main one being money, which is no surprise.) And “nothing but cupcakes”? People were crapping their pants about Oklahoma playing at FSU this year.

And for what it’s worth, I think Oklahoma State will beat LSU should they meet in the BCS title this year.

You guys don’t mean to tell me Furman isn’t a tough opponent, do you?!?!? Just kidding, obviously. My final (for now) point is that the SEC should go to a 9-game conference schedule, especially with this expansion, and a lot of complaints about scheduling (valid or not) will go away.

why is Florida Year in and YEAr out scared to play Miami you want to prove your the best in the state PLAY FSU AND MIAMI every years like FSU does scared asses…..

FSU plays FSU every year? I guess you’re counting the spring game.

And I don’t know how many times I can say this, Jinzo, but Florida wants 7 home games. It’s not that they won’t go out-of-state. It’s that they won’t leave home. (By the way, earlier you said I was “defending” Florida’s scheduling. I’m not really. I was just explaining it.)

I also wish that Florida didn’t drop Miami. There would have been some great games in the ’90s and early ’00s when the teams were pretty much simultaneously relevant for the first time.

I’d love to see some these SEC schools have to travel to the north late in the year. It would be interesting seeing Oregon, Wisconsin, BSU, Ohio State hosting teams like LSU, Bama, Auburn and others. We’d find out quickly what happens when you take teams from the southern region and see how they adapt to cold weather.

Anything can happen but I wouldn’t be surprised if those almighty SEC teams suddenly looked very beatable. It’s like a D1-A playoff, intriguing but not likely to happen in that we’d see southern teams taking northern games at seasons end.

When will Southern cal grow some balls and schedule a SEC team like Florida..LSU…Alabama on their schedule… I keep praying every year one of these bowl committees will force USC to play a SEC team cause we know damen well they will never schedule anyone other than Notre Dame..LOL