It hasn't been as strong as we would have liked the last few years. Once you switch conferences all of a sudden there are date conflicts. Miami had far less scheduling flexibility since the date of the conference championship game had to be left open.
Plus the game against FSU switched from non-conference to a conference game. That opened a non-conference slot but on short notice the available opponents were not high caliber. One major school backed out of an agreed home-and-home. Finally this year the Miami out of conference schedule improves, with a meeting at Oklahoma and home game against Texas A&M.
Here's a link detailing part of the history of Florida backing out of the annual series against Miami. Notice it's always the Gators demanding favorable conditions and then running away when they are not met. And even cancelling scheduled games during the '90s. What a joke it is 20 years later, Florida's rationale that they wanted to get away from a regional schedule and "lure quality intersectional opponents." Yeah, like that block of teams I listed in the previous post. :rofl:
http://www.geocities.com/nolefan_fsu/summary/uf_um.html"Arnsparger wanted the next two meetings after this fall to take place in Gainesville in 1990 and 1992, but Jankovich would only agree to that if Florida played at Miami in 1989. Arnsparger was unwilling to play on the road in 1989 because it would disrupt Florida's current schedule pattern of having at least six home games.
Florida announced last fall it would cut back on its games with Miami because it had to increase its Southeastern Conference schedule from six games to seven games, starting in 1988. This year's game is under a single-game contract, and Arnsparger was looking to pair that contest up with a home game in 1990."
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"Another reason behind the curtailment of the Miami-Florida series is the Gators' desire to get away from playing an entire regional schedule. With seven SEC games and Florida State already on the schedule, the Gators hope to lure a quality intersectional opponent for a home-and-home series during the 1988-91 seasons. Arnsparger has been talking with several schools outside the South about a home-and-home series, and Florida is expected to announce such an agreement before the 1987 season."
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A few years later:
"Florida officials said yesterday that the Gators will not play the Hurricanes in 1992 and 93, even though contracts have been signed for these years. Also, informal plans to resume the series annually in 1996 have been aborted as well. They said the decision was based on the Southeastern Conference's recent decision to have each school in the expanded 12-team league play eight SEC games instead of the current seven.
In a decision made Tuesday evening by the school's athletic board, Florida officials decided to exercise their escape option in the contracts for the games in 1992 and 93. The clause allows Florida to withdraw from the games by paying Maimi a cancellation fee of $75,000 for each game.
"Given all the circumstances, there was not another decision the board could come to," Florida senior associate athletic director Jeremy Foley said. "We had to do what's right for us. There is no question this is right. Miami did what they thought was right for them by joining the Big East. Now we're doing what is right for us."
Miami athletic director Sam Jankovich said yesterday he received hints of how Florida would play its hand in south Florida newspapers, but that he had not heard from Florida officials.
"I was shocked to learn through the paper about the Florida series," Jankovich said in a statement. "We had received no previous notice. As far as we're concerned, we have contracts and letter agreements to play Florida and we will do all we can to keep the series in place."