re: BEFORE SPURRIER

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I think we were on the quickly on the rise in the 80's and Spurrier was the keystone so to speak. Everything was in place to be a contender except for that last piece

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The gators in the 80s were becoming a contender and the 84 team was one of the best in our history. But then sanctions happened, which is why our conference title in 90 didn't count either.

One thing I forgot to add, when looking at this you have to keep in mind that florida as a state was not the state it is today until the swamps were drained and AC became much more common.

One amazing stat is that since 1980 a team from florida has been in the National championship at least 16 times (going off memory here).

16/29 is better than 50% appearance rate and that team has won 10/16 times. Meaning that for the last 30 years a team from florida has won the national title on average once every three years. I would say that's not too shabby and would venture a guess that no other state has ever had that kind of dominance over such a long time period.