The Florida Gators have made a change to their 2025 non-conference football schedule, according to a report from Swamp247.

Florida previously had all four of its non-conference opponents set for next season, including a matchup at home on Saturday, October 11 against the Florida A&M Rattlers of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Per the report, that game will not be played.

Instead, Florida has scheduled a different FCS opponent and it will be the season-opener at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla., likely on Saturday, Aug. 30. That opponent will reportedly be the Long Island University (LIU) Sharks of the Northeast Conference (NEC).

We previously reported that LIU was scheduled to open the 2025 season on the road against the FIU Panthers on Aug. 30. If the Sharks are instead playing at the Gators as reported, their contest against the Panthers will have to be rescheduled. The LIU-FIU contract was signed in February of this year and also includes a men’s basketball game.

The Florida Gators did not previously have a season-opening contest scheduled, so that is likely the reason for their schedule alteration. Other non-conference opponents scheduled for the Gators in 2025 include the USF Bulls at home on Sept. 6, the Miami Hurricanes on the road on Sept. 20, and the Florida State Seminoles in Gainesville to close the regular-season on Nov. 29.

In SEC action next season, Florida is scheduled to host Georgia (in Jacksonville), Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Texas and travel to Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M. SEC opponents in 2025 are the same as the 2024 season, but with the locations flipped.

Florida, which has claimed consecutive victories over ranked conference opponents at home — No. 22 LSU (27-16) and No. 9 Ole Miss (24-17) — is next scheduled to visit the 2-9 Florida State Seminoles on Saturday, Nov. 30 in Tallahassee, Fla. The game will be televised by ESPN2 at 7:00pm ET.

Football Schedules

Florida authorities recovered a collection of gold coins from an 18th-century Spanish convoy that was stolen in 2015.

The 37 gold coins were snatched from the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet and have a total value of $1 million, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission press release.

The 1715 Fleet was a combination of two different groups of Spanish ships, all under one command, heading back to Spain following a successful round of treasure hunting. The fleet fell victim to a hurricane and crashed somewhere off the coast of Florida. Their spoils, including the coins, all sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Exactly 300 years later, 101 gold coins were recovered in 2015 by the Schmitt family off of Florida’s aptly named Treasure Coast. The family worked specifically to recover treasure from the Spanish fleet, even naming their LLC the 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels.

However, only 51 of the coins were recorded, leaving the other 50 in limbo.

“While 51 of these coins were reported correctly and adjudicated, 50 coins were not disclosed and were subsequently stolen,” the FWC wrote.

The robbery sparked an FBI investigation into Eric Schmitt, one of the family members responsible for the discovery. The probe specifically looked into “the illegal sale of multiple stolen gold coins between 2023 and 2024.”

“Investigators executed multiple search warrants, recovering coins from private residences, safe deposit boxes and auctions,” the press release noted.

“Five stolen coins were reclaimed from a Florida-based auctioneer, who unknowingly purchased them from Eric Schmitt.”

Schmitt had also apparently taken three of the gold coins that he didn’t report and tossed them back into the ocean “to be found by the new investors of 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels, LLC.”

Even so, 13 of the coins are still missing. The FWC wrote that finding 37 of them “marks a major milestone in a long-standing investigation into the theft and illegal trafficking of these priceless historical artifacts.”