Report: Florida to Face Miami in Neutral Site

The Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes are finalizing an agreement to play a neutral-site game next season in Jacksonville, according to 247 Sports' Graham Hall, marking the first time the two rivals have shared the hardwood since 2019.

The teams would play each other in mid-November, Hall reported.

The instate rivals have matched up just 69 times so far with Florida holding a commanding 23-game series lead, which includes six wins in their last 10 matchups. Though the two programs have not faced off in six years, the announcement does not come as much of a shock after comments made by new Hurricanes head coach Jai Lucas earlier this offseason.

“We will have a big neutral instate rivalry renewed…that will be our big one,” Lucas told basketball insider Jon Rothstein in an interview in late May. “It would be a rotating thing that we would do for the next couple of years.”

Lucas, who heads into his first year as the Hurricanes' head coach after three years as an assistant coach with Duke, has a long history with the Gators. As a player, he was a freshman All-American with Florida before transferring away from the program.

“I have no hard feelings, I love Billy Donavan. We are just going different directions," he said after leaving UF in 2008. “Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, but it will be best for me in the long run.”

Coming off a national championship, the matchup against a Miami team expected to be much improved adds to an already tough non-conference schedule for the Gators. They already have scheduled games against Duke, UConn and Arizona.

Despite Miami finishing the year just 15-17 and 6-14 in conference, the Hurricanes roster will be completely different in 2025. On top of adding five four-star transfers, including the likes of former Michigan guard Tre Donaldson and Indiana forward and former UF commit Malik Reneau, Lucas made a huge splash addition late in the recruiting cycle, flipping five-star Shelton Henderson from Duke.

With the matchup expected to be finalized soon, the heated rivalry that was stoked on the gridiron in 2024 will continue to spread into a sport both programs expect to compete in this season.

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