Florida is a founding member of the SEC, but one Gators athletic program is joining the Big 12 in 2025. Find out which and why the move is happening

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) serves as a fundamental part of Florida’s identity.

The Gators chartered the conference in 1932, and 20 of 21 varsity teams compete in the SEC.

The lone exception?

Women’s Lacrosse.

Only UF and Vanderbilt sponsor lacrosse in the SEC, so since its program founding in 2010, the Gators have bounced between three conferences.

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Next season, Florida will move into a new home — the Big 12 and depart from the American Athletic Conference. The Big 12 is set to add LAX as a sport in 2025, and the Gators will join along with Arizona State, Cincinnati, Colorado, San Diego State and UC Davis.

The latter two enter as affiliate members. The Sun Devils, Bearcats and Buffaloes will be full members of the conference next season.

Here’s why UF is making the move:

Better non-conference schedule

Florida coach Amanda O’Leary emphasized during a press conference last Thursday the main reason for the move is the better scheduling opportunities.

With just five other members, UF can now schedule 12 non-conference games.

“I think we’ve been known to pack our out of conference games with top 10 opponents, and this gives us that opportunity,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary isn’t wrong with that statement. The Gators (1-2) first three games of 2024 were vs top 10 foes — No. 8 Loyola-Maryland, No. 6 North Carolina and No. 5 Maryland.

However, UF must end its season with six AAC games. That number would increase to eight in 2025 with USF and Charlotte adding lacrosse.

The Big 12 also expects to challenge the orange and blue more. Florida went 25-1 in its four seasons of American play, with the lone loss last season vs new member James Madison which ranked No. 7 at the time of its win.

Despite this, O’Leary remains grateful for the American.

“We got to play a lot of different teams from a lot of different areas, so it certainly prepared us well,” she said. “Moving to the Big 12, though, allows us to prepare better for the NCAA Tournament.”

Diving into recruiting hotbeds

The Big 12 lost some cachet in recent years with the departure of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. However, it remains a prestigious conference and adds four new teams this summer.

O’Leary believes this helps with recruiting, as does the ability to enter recruiting hotbeds in Colorado and California.

“The exposure for us to be able to get out there and allow potential student athletes to come watch us, that’s fantastic,” O’Leary said. “We’ll be able to get in front of a lot of different places.”

While squads such as Maryland and UNC are regular UF opponents, the coach listed dominant programs such as Northwestern, Syracuse, Stony Brook and Notre Dame as potential new games.

Each of those programs currently rank in the top 11 and play in prime recruiting regions such as the Midwest and New York State.

Travel concerns?

The biggest result of this move comes geographically. In the American, Florida’s longest trip is to Cincinnati, but in the Big 12, it’ll be their shortest.

O’Leary isn’t concerned, though, for a multitude of reasons. First, conference games in lacrosse are on weekends and conference officials promised UF it only needed to make two trips out to the west coast each season.

This means if the Gators must travel to say, Arizona State and San Diego State, Colorado and UC Davis will come to Gainesville.

As for time change, Florida is given a bone in that all conference games usually start around noon local time. Due to that, O’Leary believes the team will benefit for games in Gainesville.

A good litmus test, O’Leary thinks, comes this season. Next week, the squad travels for a west coast swing at ASU, SDSU and UC Davis.

For Sam Hughes, the travel will be embraced. The freshman is from Castle Rock, Colorado, about 60 miles southeast of Boulder.

“We already talked to her about the possibility of going to her house for dinner prior to the game,” O’Leary said.

The SEC remains end goal

The conference’s other lacrosse program — Vanderbilt — will remain in the American.

O’Leary closed by stressing the Gators would join the SEC the minute lacrosse was added.

“I think the end goal for us and Vanderbilt is to eventually play in the SEC. It’s an incredible conference, so I think lacrosse would blossom in there,” she said. “Come on ADs, make it happen.”

No. 16 Florida returns to Donald R. Dizney Stadium Wednesday after a massive 13-12 overtime upset at No. 5 Maryland Saturday. The showdown with Jacksonville begins at 4 p.m.

Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on Twitter.