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
Swampcast talks Florida Gators basketball, football, NIL
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.
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Florida
Supreme Court tosses Florida lawsuit against states for driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a long-shot lawsuit in which Florida sought to sue California and Washington for allegedly allowing people who entered the country illegally to obtain commercial truck driver’s licenses.
Florida’s claim was filed in the aftermath of a high-profile crash in the state last year in which a truck driven by an Indian man, Harjinder Singh, was involved in an accident that left three people dead. The state, which says Singh did not have legal status in the United States, alleges he was wrongly issued licenses in both California and Washington. Singh faces criminal charges over the incident.
The court denied the state’s appeal without comment.
Tune in to Here’s the Scoop’s special Supreme Court Edition, where Senior Legal Correspondent Laura Jarrett goes deep on major cases.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a separate opinion saying he would have heard the case. He was joined by fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito.
“This court declines to even hear Florida’s claims, even though it has nowhere else to bring them,” Thomas wrote.
The unusual case saw Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, file a claim directly at the Supreme Court instead of a lower state or federal court. The court can sometimes intervene in such disputes between states, but it rarely does so.
The lawsuit alleged that the Democratic-led states’ “open defiance” of federal immigration laws has led them to flout federal safety regulations. This has resulted in drivers obtaining licenses without “proper training or the ability to read road signs.” Those drivers cross state lines and are therefore threatening the safety of people in Florida and other states, the lawsuit says. Iowa and 16 other states filed a brief backing Florida.
Lawyers for California and Washington argued in response that there was no basis for the Supreme Court to take up the issue.
Washington Attorney General Nicholas Brown wrote in his brief that the lawsuit was a “political stunt, not a real claim,” noting that Uthmeier announced he was filing it during an appearance on conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show.
Uthmeier, who is currently running for a full term after being appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, has frequently leaned in on divisive conservative causes.
The Florida crash sparked a new political fight over illegal immigration as the Trump administration implements a hard-line immigration policy. In the aftermath of the incident, the administration threatened to cut off federal funds from California, Washington and New Mexico if they did not implement English language requirements for commercial drivers.
JUPITER ISLAND, Fla. (CBS12) — Famous golfer Tiger Woods broke his silence on Memorial Day following his DUI arrest in Jupiter.
On X, Woods — whose full name is Eldrick Tont Woods — shared a Memorial Day tribute to his father, writing, “My father was a Special Forces operator with two tours in Vietnam and 20 years of service. To all those like my father, we all say thank you for your sacrifices. Without them we wouldn’t have the greatest country on Earth.”
In March, Woods was arrested on suspicion of DUI following a two-vehicle rollover crash involving a pickup truck and his Land Rover.
See also: Midnight shooting outside Boca Raton restaurant leaves 2 hospitalized, suspect on the run
Following his arrest, Woods, 50, waived his arraignment and pleaded not guilty in the Martin County case. The plea came after a probable cause affidavit revealed deputies found two white pills in Woods’ pocket, identified by their imprint as hydrocodone during the DUI arrest. The case also includes a refusal to submit to a urine test under a recently strengthened Florida law.
The arrest led Martin County prosecutors to subpoena Woods’ prescription records and order him to appear in court in May. However, Woods did not appear at the Stuart courthouse, and his attorney, Doug Duncan, appeared on his behalf.
Duncan said during the court hearing, the defense is no longer opposing the subpoena, and both the state and defense agreed the records should only be made available to attorneys and law enforcement. As a result, the prescription records will not become public record and will not be available to the media.
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The case against Woods remains ongoing.
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