The
University of Florida football team is No. 3 in the final Bowl Championship
Series (BCS) standings released on Sunday night and has accepted an invitation
to play Big East Champion Louisville (10-2) in the
79th Annual Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, at
the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, La. The game will be televised by ESPN
at 8:30 p.m. and it will mark the 27th time
that the contest has featured two 10-win teams.
The
Gators (11-1) will be making their 22nd-straight bowl appearance, which ranks
first in the SEC and second nationally. This will also be Florida’s 19th
January Bowl game since 1993, the highest total in the country.
This will be the ninth Sugar Bowl appearance by the Gators, tied
for the third-most in history. Florida is 3-5 in its eight previous Sugar Bowl
appearances, which most recently included a 51-24 win over Cincinnati in the
2010 game and also included a 52-20 victory over Florida State for the 1997
National Championship (1996 season). The Gators’ first Sugar Bowl appearance
was in the 1966 Sugar Bowl, a 20-18 loss to Missouri, despite an
MVP-performance by quarterback Steve Spurrier.
UF
has claimed a school-record four-consecutive bowls and will be making its
eighth-consecutive January Bowl appearance, the longest active streak in the
nation. In addition, the Gators will be appearing in a BCS Bowl for the seventh
time, tops in the SEC and tied for the third-best total nationally. Florida’s
total of five BCS Bowl wins is tied for the top total in the nation and with a
victory it will have the top total in the nation in all-time BCS wins. UF will
be making its 40th Bowl appearance.
Will
Muschamp is the only first time head coach at a BCS-conference school to win 11
regular-season games in his second season after finishing .500 or worse the
previous regular season in records back to 1996. Florida improved from a 6-6
regular season in 2011 to an 11-1 regular season in 2012. The five-game
turnaround in the regular season marked the biggest one-year leap for the
program in 32 years (0-10-1 in 1979, 7-4 regular season in 1980).
This will be the third meeting on the gridiron between
Florida and Louisville. The first meeting came on Oct. 25, 1980, as the Gators
topped the Cardinals, 13-0, in Gainesville. On Oct. 24, 1992, Florida upended
Louisville, 31-17, also at The Swamp.
Bowl
Championship Series Rankings
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1.
Notre Dame
|
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2.
Alabama
|
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3.
FLORIDA
|
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4.
Oregon
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5.
Kansas State
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6.
Stanford
|
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7.
Georgia
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8.
LSU
|
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9.
Texas A&M
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10.
South Carolina
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