There have been no official announcements about Florida's 2012 football schedule just yet, but Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun has confirmed some details about the Gators' 2012 slate, and so it's probably smart to write about them, hmmm?
With additional thanks to Only Gators, after the jump, we have what the 2012 Florida schedule might look like.
Entries in bold are confirmed games and dates; entries in italics are strong suspicions. On other games, dates may be wrong, but team and home/road status are correct.
- September 1: vs. Bowling Green in Gainesville at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
- September 8: at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, at Kyle Field
- September 15: at Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn., at Neyland Stadium
- September 22: vs. Kentucky in Gainesville at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
- September 29: vs. Missouri in Gainesville at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
- October 6: vs. LSU in Gainesville at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
- October 13: at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., at Dudley Field
- October 20: bye week
- October 27: vs. Georgia in Jacksonville at EverBank Field
- November 3: vs. South Carolina in Gainesville at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
- November 10: vs. Louisiana-Lafayette in Gainesville at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
- November 17: vs. Jacksonville State in Gainesville at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
- November 24: at Florida State in Tallahassee at Doak Campbell Stadium
The important thing to remember here is something Dooley wrote:
The league and its athletic directors have been working on the schedules since A&M and Missouri joined the league. This year's schedule won't be a template for future schedules, rather a one-year stop-gap until the ADs can sit down and form a working schedule for future years.
That's why I anticipate little change to the traditional "Kentucky early, South Carolina late" structure of Florida's schedule; the SEC needed to fit in games based on where teams could fit them in for 2012 schedules, but can get more flexibility from schools in non-conference play going forward. Additionally, it's obviously not in the SEC's best interests to have a marquee school like Florida spend its November playing tomato cans from the Sun Belt and FCS.
The SEC is expected to release its full official 2012 schedule on Monday. We'll have the full official Florida football schedule for 2012 when the SEC does.