The other day I wrote about how I was rooting for Florida State and Miami to win their football games while my hometown school, the University of Florida, had a much-needed bye week in anticipation of playing against long-time rival Georgia next Saturday. When I grew up in Hollywood...just a few miles north of Miami...the idea of supporting all Floridian teams whenever they weren't playing each other was very common. But since I moved to Gainesville, I noticed that the prevailing sentiment seems to hate the other two major college teams for all it's worth. I was disappointed in FSU's last-minute loss to Louisville, even though I'll be fervently pulling for the Gators when they face off later this year. And I was equally elated when the "Cardiac 'Canes" pulled out another win, this one against Syracuse. But my allegiance to my home state in no way transfers to that for the other teams in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast Conferences...
Outside of Florida, there are few teams that I consistently support...and a couple that I vehemently oppose, both in Florida's own SEC: Alabama and Georgia. The Crimson Tide I dislike only because I dislike their coach, who deserted my Miami Dolphins in mid-contract after the 2006 season to coach his "dream team". With the Bulldogs, I don't dislike them per se...they just seem to be Florida's natural rival with a long history of bitter losses and glorious victories in their regular season games at Jacksonville...
There are other teams besides the "big three" in Florida: South Florida, Central Florida, Florida A&M, Bethune Cookman, Florida Atlantic, and Florida International. Of these, USF and UCF are enjoying particularly good seasons in 2017: I'll have to keep an eye on them...
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