The 5th-ranked Florida Gators make the trek to Knoxville on Saturday for an afternoon top-10 matchup with the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers. The game is scheduled to start at noon ET with TV coverage on ESPN and streaming on-demand.

#5 Florida Gators (18-2) at #8 Tennessee Volunteers (17-4)

NCAA men’s basketball matchup at a glance

When: Saturday, Feb. 1 at noon ET

Where: Food City Center, Knoxville, Tenn.

TV channel: ESPN

Live streams: FuboTV (free trial) | SlingTV (low intro rate) | DirecTV Stream (free trial)

The Gators kick off a rugged stretch of games with four straight against top-25 competition that includes a Feb. 4 home game against No. 24 Vanderbilt and road trips to face No. 1 Auburn (Feb. 8) and No. 14 Mississippi State (Feb. 11). Florida enters Saturday’s matchup with Tennessee sitting two games back of SEC leader Auburn as one of the league’s 10 ranked teams.

Tennessee is in the midst of its own schedule challenges and a stretch of five straight ranked matchups. The Vols are 1-2 through three games of it, most recently falling to No. 1 Auburn (53-51) and No. 12 Kentucky (78-73).

Florida Gators vs. Tennessee Vols: Know your live streaming options

• FuboTV (free trial) – excellent viewer experience with a huge library of live sports content; free trial lengths vary.
• SlingTV (low intro rate) – discounted first month is best if you’ve run out of free trials or you’re in the market for 1+ month of TV
• DirecTV Stream (free trial) – not the same level of viewer experience as FuboTV, but the 7-day free trial is still the longest in streaming.

The Gators and Vols are set for a noon ET start on ESPN. Live streams are available from FuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial) and SlingTV (low intro rate).

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida House Speaker Danny Perez is challenging Governor Ron DeSantis about the true reason behind his opposition to a controversial immigration reform bill. As tensions escalate between the legislative and executive branches over this sweeping policy, Perez says he’s hopeful that the governor will pick up the phone to find a resolution.

Despite a reported lack of dialogue, in a chat about the ongoing infighting, Perez said this week he remains focused on turning that big immigration bill lawmakers passed Tuesday, known as the TRUMP Act, into Florida law.

“The legislature’s bill is significantly more conservative and tougher on crime when it comes to illegal immigration,” Perez said.

The 84-page proposal includes mandatory death sentences for undocumented individuals convicted of capital crimes, the elimination of in-state tuition for DACA recipients, and a half-billion-dollar allocation for state and city police to enforce immigration laws. It also proposes giving Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner the authority to oversee immigration enforcement.

Perez noted not only is the commissioner an elected official, but the post has a statewide network and its own law enforcement.

“This is too important of a position to not be held accountable,” said Speaker Perez. “I wanted to ensure that it was a person elected statewide. The Commissioner of Agriculture’s job here is to make sure that local law enforcement and all levels of law enforcement are cooperating with the federal government and President Trump.”

However, Governor DeSantis has sharply criticized the bill, calling it “a very, very grotesque weak piece of legislation.” According to DeSantis, the bill was crafted too hastily and is potentially unconstitutional due to its siphoning of immigration authority away from the governor’s office.

“You have to do a ‘mother may I’ with the Commissioner of Agriculture about whether you can bring in the federal immigration authorities,” he said during one of four immigration roundtables this week. “How ridiculous is that? How does that help us do what we need to do?”

The controversy has escalated into a public battle, with Republicans openly criticizing each other through TV interviews, podcasts, and across social platforms. Accusations of being “Republican In Name Only” are rampant, along with personal attacks and recall petitions.

“If the governor disagrees by calling the bill weak and liberal and all these other things that are just not true,” said Perez. “At that point, it is hard to collaborate with a partner that is unwilling to communicate.”

When asked what he would say to Governor DeSantis directly, Perez said. “I would ask him, what’s, ‘What’s the real reason that you’re against my bill?’ What is it? What don’t you like about the bill? Be honest about it. There’s no Twitter here. You know, he goes on Hannity and Laura Ingraham and like, three times a week. I would ask him to be honest with me: what is the real problem with the bill? Because this is not a weak bill. He knows it’s not a weak bill.”

DeSantis’s team has consistently said they want more stringent measures, like making illegal immigration a state crime, granting deportation powers to Florida, and establishing an immigration czar under the governor’s authority. DeSantis has threatened to veto the bill, and while lawmakers can override it, the necessary Senate votes might not be there.

Perez acknowledged the potential for a veto, saying, “You have to think about what he’s about to veto. He’s about to veto a bill that gives the death penalty to illegal immigrants that rape children. I mean, put that into perspective for a second. Think about that. We did our job. We made the best, most conservative bill that anyone could have ever imagined, the best in the country, and we passed it with a super majority of Republicans and not one Democrat.”

Despite the possibility of a legislative logjam, Perez remained unfazed about his relationship with the governor, emphasizing that in his mind, the rift isn’t a feud; it’s a “disagreement.”

“There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing with someone,” said the Speaker. “The important part is that once you realize that you are in a disagreement, that you were able to converse in order to try and find a solution. That’s the part that’s missing this disagreement. That’s it, right there. So, I mean, eventually, it has to happen. It’s just a matter of when. I would have it tonight. I’d have it after this interview. I would do it whenever.”

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – General education courses at Florida colleges and universities are going to be significantly reduced.

The Board of Governors voted Thursday to approve a new course list that it believes is not based on theories of systemic racism and privilege, among others.

The board meeting, held in the student union building at the University of North Florida, got some pushback.

About 30 minutes before the six-hour meeting started, a group of professors and students protested the changes and wanted the board of governors to reconsider before voting.

The change to the course list dates back to 2023 when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law changes that allow the Board of Governors to have the authority to remove courses from the general education track that they find to be based on “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United State and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequalities.”

During Thursday’s meeting, State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues mentioned a poll that was recently taken that asked if people had confidence in higher education and pointed out why a large number of people said they did not have confidence.

“If you did not have confidence, why did you not have confidence in higher education? There were three main reasons,” Rodrigues said. “The No. 1 reason was political agenda, a belief that higher education has turned into indoctrination and faculty members were pushing their own personal liberal agendas.

Rodrigues also mentioned the other two reasons in the poll, including people believing higher education had the wrong purpose. Some polled said graduates cannot find jobs and the degrees they are earning are meaningless. The other reasons were cost and debt.

Before Thursday’s meeting started, more than a dozen UNF professors and students gathered along the walkway of the student union building to express that they feel like they are being limited in what they can teach and learn.

Dr. Matthew Leon, a business professor, said he has already had to make a drastic change in one of his courses.

“I teach a bunch of human resources courses,” Leon said. “Right now, I have a disclaimer in my syllabus that students do not have to believe what I say, which is insane for me to say, ‘there is federal law that has been established for 60 years, but if you don’t like it, don’t let it stress you out.’ The world is a challenging place. We are doing our students a disservice by not giving them an education that allows them to navigate it.”

Leon said he attended the organized news conference to plead with the Board of Governors to rethink the choice it was bound to make.

“What I am here to do is really to ask the board to allow the experts and the people on the ground to give the education to our students in our workforce that they need to remain world-class,” he said.

During the meeting, Rodrigues also said the board is not prohibiting colleges or universities from offering all of the courses on those topics.

But none of the classes can be included as a part of any general education requirements in order to graduate from a state college or university.