The sunshine state has long been a hotbed for college football.  With an abundance of high school talent leaving for college every year, Florida schools have their pick of the litter of some of the nation’s best athletes.  For as long as anyone can remember, at least one of the big three (Florida, Florida State and Miami) has been a factor in the national championship picture.  In the past ten years, all three of these schools have won national titles: Florida State in 1999, Miami in 2001 and Florida in 2006.  During that same time period, however, these three schools have traversed dramatically different paths to arrive at their current circumstance.  Furthermore, in a state where most believed that no other schools could compete in either recruiting or ranking, the Universities of Central and South Florida have both become presences in their own right.

Flash back to 1998, if you will.  Florida State was about to embark on the greatest season in the school’s history.  In 1999, Bobby Bowden coached his Seminoles to an undefeated season and an ultimate victory over the Michael Vick-led Virginia Tech Hokies.  Steve Spurrier was still coaching at Florida, but after winning a national championship only several years prior, the Ol’ Ball Coach seemed to have lost his edge on the Swamp’s sidelines.  The Washington Redskins would soon come calling.  Miami, under Butch Davis, was just starting to recover from athletic sanctions suffered by the Dennis Erickson regime.  Larry Coker would take over in 2001, leading Miami to a perfect 12-0.  Coker took them back to the championship game in 2003, only to lose to in overtime to Ohio State.  At Central Florida, Mike Kruczek took over as head coach for a program that had only joined Division 1-A a few years earlier.  Similarly, South Florida’s fledgling football program had only begun in 1997 under the tutelage of a young Jim Leavitt.

In 2008, it is safe to say the script has been flipped for all five programs.  Florida State is far from the powerhouse it was in the 1990s.  A team that once dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference, winning its first nine, consecutive conference titles, has not won an ACC crown since 2005.  The school continues to have off-the-field problems with its student athletes.  Their traditional dominance over Florida has also waned, having dropped four straight meetings.  All this has some Seminole faithful questioning whether Bobby Bowden should finally hand over the reins to his successor.  The Gators, on the other hand, are in fine shape.  After going 23-14 and winless in a bowl in three years under Ron Zook, the Florida faithful became impatient.  Zook, ever the master recruiter, left the cupboard loaded with talent and when Florida signed Urban Meyer from Utah in 2004, Meyer led that talent to the mountaintop.  Florida is still right where it wants to be, consistently competing alongside the top programs in the nation.  For the second time in three years, Florida is poised to contend for a national title.  Miami joined the ACC in 2004, but has yet to win a conference title in that time.  Miami is currently rebuilding under young head coach Randy Shannon.  Last year, for the first time in ten years, Miami failed to reached a bowl game  Although they have faced some difficulties recently, they appear to be headed in the right direction with Shannon, but rest assured ‘Canes fans won’t settle for too many more sub-.500 seasons.  Just making a bowl is not good enough for the University of Miami. Since joining Conference USA in 2005, Central Florida has already won two titles.  In 2007, South Florida was the highest ranked Florida school, climbing as high as #2 in the nation.  These two schools are starting to develop a healthy in-state rivalry.  While obviously not holding the same firepower or hype as when two of the big three meet, there is still plenty of talent on the field.  Both UCF and USF have proven they can play with any school in the nation.  Miami may find that out this season as they host Central Florida on October 11.

For four of the five schools, the future is bright.  Florida continues to scour the nation for top talent.  Nobody would be surprised is Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow leads the Gators to another title.  Miami will have its hands full in the ACC, but should ultimately return to competitiveness under Shannon.  That will be no easy task as long as Clemson and Virginia Tech continue to field national championship contenders.  UCF and USF will continue their ascent to prominence.  However, Florida State may face more difficult times before any return to glory.  Bobby Bowden can obviously write his own ticket coaching in the stadium that bears his name.  Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher has been tagged as his successor, but Bowden has set no definite timetable for his retirement.  Extended mediocrity for this program might warrant an exit sooner rather than later.  Nobody expects him to coach all that much longer, however repeated losses to Florida combined with Joe Paterno continuing to chalk up wins on the sidelines rivaling Bowden’s all-time wins might just extend his time on the sidelines.  One thing for sure, once considered one of the most intriguing match-ups of the calendar year, the Florida State-Miami rivalry has been relegated to just another regular season game.

The state of Florida remains a football factory.  While the Florida Gators are clearly in the best shape of the five schools, Urban Meyer knows he can not rest on his laurels.  Miami is back on their regular schedule renewing the rivalry and the Gators haven’t beaten them in over twenty years.  It should be some time, however, before either Miami, or Florida State, contend for a national title.  USF, on the other hand, playing in the Big East, could conceivably affect the national championship picture as ridiculous as that sounds.  After all, before losing to Pittsburgh, West Virginia was poised to play for a national championship.  Their only loss last season prior to that game was to South Florida.  UCF should also not be an afterthought.  Last year’s squad won at North Carolina State and nearly beat Texas as George O’Leary continues to yield competitive teams.  A big non-conference win, for example against Miami this year, will put UCF on the map.

The past decade proves just how fickle a game college football is.  It is difficult to imagine a world where Miami and Florida State do not play a major role in the national championship picture, yet that is how things stand.  UCF, while competitive might never figure into that equation.  College football’s bias towards major conference teams bears that out.  Despite a great season last year, USF would have to run the table to even be considered for a national championship bid.  Then again, nobody thought the Tampa Bay Rays would ever compete in the American League East either.  Florida remains the state’s only legitimate powerhouse, although stay tuned.  Who knows what the next ten years might hold.