Florida
Why is this Florida Gators athletic program joining the Big 12 next season?
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
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The Sun’s Kevin Brockway and David Whitley discuss NIL and the UF basketball matchup vs. Vanderbilt with Aria Gerson of the Tennessean.
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.
Florida
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Florida
South Florida’s top deals: Davie school building sells for $16M
🏆 Residential: The top home sale to hit records was in Pinecrest, where a home at 5865 Southwest 96th Street changed hands for $7.8 million. The sellers were Luis and Liz Messianu, who purchased the 7,800-square-foot property in 2024 for $7.3 million. The buyer was Bunny S Sunshine Haven LLC. The home went on the market in February for $8.2 million. Judith and Nathan Zeder with Coldwell Banker Realty had the listing, and Dennis Carvajal with One Sotheby’s International Realty brought the buyer.
🏆 Commercial: The most expensive recorded commercial deal was in Davie, where a school building sold for $16 million at 3367 North University Drive. The seller was 3367 N University Holdings LLC; the buyer was JSI N University LLC. The building measures about 46,000 square feet.
📊 Residential: Matthew and Nadia Weaver purchased a newly built home at 299 Northeast Seventh Street in Boca Raton for $6.8 million. The seller was a company managed by Marco Capoccia. Built this year, the home measures 5,800 square feet and has five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. The sale breaks down to about $1,200 per square foot. Jacqueline Feldman with One Sotheby’s International Realty represented both sides of the transaction.
If you like this digest, you can get it even earlier — every evening — by subscribing to TRD Data, here.
Florida
Why the Red Sox are sending Roman Anthony to Florida (and to another doctor) – The Boston Globe
ANAHEIM, Calif. — In sending Roman Anthony to Fort Myers, Fla., to continue his injury rehabilitation, the Red Sox have assigned him one blunt goal: Make it back to Boston.
The geographic reassignment is “a very good opportunity,” interim manager Chad Tracy said, for Anthony to not have to deal with much other than figuring out a way to return from a partially torn ligament in his right ring finger, which continues to impact his hand/wrist — and, thus, his ability to swing a bat.
“His focus, a singular focus now, is if you’re in Florida, it’s to get yourself healthy and not have to deal with all the other stuff that goes with it,” Tracy said before Sunday night’s series finale against the Angels. “So it’s a singular focus, very focused on getting himself healthy and getting back to us.
“We want him. We want him in the lineup. So I’m going to keep in touch with him frequently and see how he’s doing, with the hope that we get him back.”
And “other stuff” refers to what?
“Just the day-to-day of being at Fenway,” Tracy said. “He’s going to get asked questions about it constantly. And for him being there, his focus is on one thing right now: That’s get yourself healthy.”
When Tracy first mentioned Saturday that the Sox decided Anthony would be based out of their Fenway South spring training/minor league facility indefinitely, he presented it as logistical. The home clubhouse at Fenway had grown crowded because of the number of injured players, he said, so moving Anthony was a way to open space — as the Sox had done with a handful of pitchers previously.
On Sunday, Tracy added: “It’s also a very good opportunity for him to go and get away from” the “other stuff.”
Anthony has been out since May 4, when he got hurt on a seemingly random swing.
Nine weeks later, he has not resumed a hitting program as he and the Sox navigate the highly unusual baseball injury.
This week, Anthony will visit a new doctor: Gary Lourie in Atlanta. Lourie is a hand specialist, the Braves’ head team physician, and a partner at The Hand & Upper Extremity Center of Georgia.
“Just for peace of mind,” Tracy said. “I expect we’re going to be in a good spot. But really just about getting him in a spot where he can focus each day on just pounding away at getting that hand healthy.”
Casas set back again
The latest in the plight of Triston Casas: He has suffered from a wrist issue in recent days, Tracy said, so he is shut down from hitting again.
The Red Sox will “check on that” before letting Casas resume anything bat-related, per Tracy.
For Casas, 26, it is another in a string of injuries. He hasn’t played since having knee surgery 14 months ago, and for the past three months he had been trying to return from an abdominal issue.
“He’s gone through a lot,” Tracy said. “Between the knee, he had a little hamstring flareup, obviously the oblique, and then he’s coming back from that, and now there’s a wrist that’s popped up.
“So, just dealing with different things. Having not played in a while, things have popped up. So we’ll keep an eye on him, and once he’s able to, keep progressing as we can.”
Early update
Connelly Early’s second opinion, also this week, will be with Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas, the team said. Meister is a leading orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon who specializes in elbow problems.
Following his early exit Tuesday, Early got an MRI and was diagnosed with posterior elbow inflammation but no structural damage, the Red Sox said Wednesday.
Singling out Seigler
Anthony Seigler batted leadoff for the fourth time in five games. Tracy called him “a logical choice for it” because of his ability to swing at strikes, not swing at balls, and work lengthy at-bats. “He puts the bat on the ball,” Tracy said, “and help hopefully get the game started off right for us” … Masataka Yoshida was the DH, just his second start in a stretch of seven games (amid a run of the Sox facing more lefthanded starters than usual) … The Sox’ next rotation decision is Thursday. They could go with Sonny Gray (on turn), Patrick Sandoval (for his long-awaited team debut), or somebody else against the White Sox.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.
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