Florida State Seminoles - Overview

Overview

Florida State Athletics began in 1902 when the then Florida State College football teams played three seasons. The 1905 Buckman Act reorganized the existing seven Florida colleges into three institutions, segregated by race and gender. As a result of this reorganization, the coeducational Florida State College was renamed the Florida State College for Women. The Florida State University became a co-ed institution in 1947 with most of the newly enrolled male students back from service in World War II. Athletic programs quickly resumed and Florida State fielded its first football team in 43 years with FSU facing Stetson on October 18, 1947.

Florida State was a founding member of the Dixie Conference in 1948 when other southern institutions seeking to create a "purely amateur" athletic conference based on the principle of complete amateurism, with no athletic scholarships. Three years later FSU left the conference to become an independent, having won 3 football, and 2 Men's Track and Field Conference Titles.

In 1976 Florida State joined the Metro Conference in all sports except football, which remained independent. The Metro Conference never sponsored football in the first place. For fifteen years Florida State competed and won 47 conference titles as well as a women's golf National Title, two Softball National Titles and two women's Track and Field National Titles. At the beginning of the 1992 academic fall term Florida State joined the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Since the 1991–1992 academic year, Florida State has been a member of the ACC. In 1993 and 1999 FSU Football won the National Championships. The Men's track and Field team have won three consecutive national titles since 2006. After the 2005 conference expansion was complete FSU was placed in the newly formed Atlantic Division. In the 2005 Inaugural ACC Football Championship game FSU defeated Virginia Tech 27–22. This is their last of their 12 ACC Football titles to date.

Florida State's school colors of garnet and gold are a merging of the University's past. In 1904 and 1905 the Florida State College won football championships wearing purple and gold uniforms. When FSC became Florida State College for Women in 1905, the FSCW student body selected crimson as the official school color. The administration in 1905 took crimson and combined it with the recognizable purple of the championship football teams to achieve the color garnet. The now-famous garnet and gold colors were first used on an FSU uniform in a 14–6 loss to Stetson on October 18, 1947.

There are 8 men's athletic teams and 10 women's teams currently fielded by FSU. They are: