Some students are a throwback to when Florida State was a girls' school. Many of the FSU/FU games became instant classics. I remember an embarrassed mom cell phoning one of these girls telling her to put some clothes on.
Back in the 1990s - Florida State averaged 10 wins a season - and that was when they only played 11 games. Indeed - every year the National Championship passed through the Sunshine State. In the last 25 years - 9 National Cups went to either Florida - Florida State or Miami. People were saying that the Florida/Florida State game was the biggest rivalry in all of sports - shadowing the second best Duke/North Carolina basketball game.
It all started out back when Florida decided that Florida State in Tallahassee would be the girls' school and the University of Florida in Gainesville would be the boys' college. After World War II - both colleges went co-ed - but it took an act of the state legislature to force the Gators to play the Seminoles. Still Florida has the larger alumni donations and gets the lion's share of the state budget. Many alumni of FSU were in the "women's professions" of teaching - nursing - library science - and the arts - that generally do not produce large nest eggs for endowments.
Tomorrow the rivalry continues. The stadium is sold out. The game will be played at 3:30 on ABC. Each school has lost only one football game. In today's longer seasons - FSU already has 10 wins. Both teams are ranked in the Top 10. Each has an outside chance of playing in the National Championship game.
Remarkably - FSU seldom sells out a football game. Even when there is a sellout - many season ticket holders choose to stay home and watch the game on TV. Lulu and I are banking on that tomorrow. Face value of the ticket is $75. I have turned down good seats on the 20 yard line for $150 each. There are quite a few on Craigslist and other web pages. The game starts at 3:30 - the weather is predicted to be nice - we will hop on our scooter at 2:30 - and head to the stadium. We will get in for face value or we will come home and watch the game on HDTV.
FSU has two games left in the season. Next Saturday they play the ACC Championship game against Georgia Tech. The winner goes on to the Orange Bowl and will probably play the big East Champion. If they win them all - FSU could finish with its first 13-win season. That was a really big deal - back when you only played 11 regular season games.
Added - Sunday at 4 PM - FSU lost 37-27. We bought tickets on the goal line for $60 each. The score makes the game look closer than it was.
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