Gator Chomp - Overview

Overview

The Florida Gators athletic program has been recognized as the best overall in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) over the past two decades, and consistently as one of the best in the nation. During the 2011–2012 school year, the Gators men's and women's teams combined to win the Southeastern Conference All-Sports Trophy for the twenty-second time in the past twenty-five years. Every year since 1983, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) has recognized the Gators athletic program as one of the ten best overall Division I athletic programs in the country in its annual NACDA Directors' Cup standings. The Florida Gators men's athletic program won the inaugural Capital One Cup in 2011, awarded annually based on the performances of all the teams in the program.

Among the Gators' recent national championships, the Florida Gators men's basketball team won the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournaments, and the Florida Gators football team won 2007 BCS National Championship Game in football, all in the space of 366 days. Florida is the only school in NCAA history to hold the men's basketball and football championships during the same school year. In January 2009, the Florida Gators football team won the 2009 BCS National Championship Game with a 24–14 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners. The Gators won the NCAA men's indoor track and field championship in three consecutive seasons in 2010, 2011 and 2012, the NCAA women's swimming and diving team national championship in 2010, the NCAA women's tennis championship in 2011 and 2012, and the NCAA men's outdoor track and field championship in 2012, earning the university a total of twenty-nine national team championships. Individual Gator athletes have won 249 individual NCAA championships in boxing, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field.

All Gators sports teams compete in NCAA Division I, and twenty of the twenty-one Gators teams compete in the SEC. The University of Florida was one of the thirteen charter members who joined together to form the new Southeastern Conference on December 8 and 9, 1932. Previously, the university was a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1912 to 1921, and the Southern Conference from 1922 until the SEC began play in the fall of 1933.

The University of Florida sports teams adopted orange and blue as their official colors in 1910, purportedly representing a combination of the main colors of the two primary institutions that merged to form the university in 1905. The alligator, or "gator," was incidentally chosen as Florida's mascot when a Gainesville merchant sold school pennants with an alligator emblem in 1911. Albert and Alberta are the official costumed mascots of the Florida Gators. Albert and Alberta are unique among the SEC's mascots as the only male-and-female pair.

All Florida Gators sports teams have on-campus facilities, and most are located on Stadium Road, including Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for football, the O'Connell Center for basketball, gymnastics, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, and volleyball, Alfred A. McKethan Stadium for baseball, and James G. Pressly Stadium for soccer and outdoor track and field. The Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium and the Florida Lacrosse Facility are located on Hull Road on the southwestern side of the campus. The Mark Bostick Golf Course and Scott Linder Stadium for tennis are located on S.W. Second Avenue on the northwestern side of the campus.

The Florida Gators athletic program is administered by the University Athletic Association, Inc. (UAA), a private non-profit corporation that reports to the president of the university and its board of trustees. For the 2009–2010 school year, the UAA has an operating budget of $85,832,812, projected revenues of $90,744,037, and will make a $6 million contribution to the university's general fund.

Jeremy Foley is Florida's athletic director, having served in his present position since 1992. Foley guided the searches that resulted in the hiring of national-championship coaches Becky Burleigh (women's soccer), Billy Donovan (men's basketball), Mike Holloway (track and field), Urban Meyer (football), Roland Thornqvist (women's tennis), and Gregg Troy (women's swimming). He was also fortunate to inherit national-championship men's golf coach Buddy Alexander and SEC-dominant volleyball coach Mary Wise, the only two current Florida coaches who predate Foley's tenure as athletic director. He has guided the successful expansion of Florida's varsity sports program over the past two decades, with the addition of women's soccer in 1995, softball in 1997, and women's lacrosse in 2010. The University of Florida currently fields teams in nine men's sports and twelve women's sports, including:

The Gators men's and women's track and field teams are counted twice in the total number of Florida's sports teams because Gators track and field athletes compete in the separate indoor and outdoor track and field seasons sanctioned by the NCAA.