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Gators National Champs in Football 2008
The 2008 Florida Gators football team represented the University of Florida in the sport of American football during the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Gators competed in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and played their home games in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the university’s Gainesville, Florida, campus. They were led by fourth-year head coach Urban Meyer.
After clinching the SEC East, the Gators defeated then top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide 31–20 in the SEC Championship Game to win their eighth conference title. They capped their season by defeating the Oklahoma Sooners in the BCS National Championship Game 24–14. The Gators finished the season ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll and the Coaches’ Poll.
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College World Series Winners Gators 2017
The 2017 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament began on June 1, 2017, as part of the 2017 NCAA Division I baseball season. The 64-team, double-elimination tournament concluded with the 2017 College World Series (CWS) in Omaha, Nebraska. The CWS started on June 17 and ended on June 27.
The 64 participating NCAA Division I college baseball teams was selected out of an eligible 299 teams. Thirty-one teams were awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conferences, and 33 teams were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee.
Teams were divided into sixteen regionals of four teams, which conducted a double-elimination tournament. Regional champions then faced each other in Super Regionals, a best-of-three-game series, to determine the eight participants in the College World Series.
All Florida Gators sports teams compete in NCAA Division I, and 20 of the 21 Gators teams compete in the SEC. The sole University of Florida sports team that does not play in the SEC is the women’s lacrosse team, which joined the American Athletic Conference after the 2018 lacrosse season. The University of Florida was one of the thirteen charter members who joined together to form the new Southeastern Conference in 1932. Previously, the university was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1912 to 1921 and the Southern Conference from 1922 until the SEC began play in the fall of 1933.
College Sports Established
1906
Location
Gainesville, Florida
College Name
University of Florida
Collegiate History
1973 – Present / NCAA Division 1
1915 – 1973 / University Division of the NCAA
Conference History
1932 – Present / SEC Conference
1922 – 1932 / Southern Conference
1911 – 1921 / Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
Nickname
Gators – As with the school colors, the exact origin of the alligator (almost always shortened to “gator”) as the school mascot is not well documented. It likely originated in 1908, when Gainesville merchant Phillip Miller chose the animal to adorn pennants he designed for sale to students. The school did not yet have a mascot, and Miller chose the alligator because it is native to Florida and was not claimed by any other school. The football team subsequently adopted the “Gators” nickname in 1911. There are two theories as how the name become synonymous with the university’s athletic programs. One theory is that the 1911 football squad began calling themselves the Gators in honor of team captain Neal “Bo Gator” Storter. Storter himself refuted this explanation, saying that it originated when a sportswriter in South Carolina described Florida’s 1911 road upset of Clemson as an “invasion of alligators from Florida” and the players adopted the name. Whatever its origins, the nickname “Gators” (and for a time, “Lady Gators” for women’s sports) has been used by the University of Florida’s athletic program for over a century.
NCAA Championships
Baseball 1
2017
Men’s Basketball 2
2007, 2006
Women’s Basketball 0
Football 3
2008, 2006, 1996
Soccer 0
