Though the Southeastern Conference said this week that the league’s entire 2012 football schedule will not be released until after Christmas (potentially as early as Monday), The Gainesville Sun’s Pat Dooley reported Friday that a number of opponents and dates are already set in stone for the Florida Gators next year.
According to The Sun, Florida’s annual game with Tennessee will still occur as scheduled during the third week of the season, but it will no longer serve as the Gators’ 2012 SEC opener. Instead Florida will travel to College Station, TX and take on Texas A&M for the latter’s first-ever SEC game on Sept. 8.
Additionally, UF’s return game against Auburn will not occur and the spot in the schedule previously set for Ole Miss to join the rotation will instead be used for new SEC East member Missouri. The one constant for the Gators is that LSU will remain on the schedule as Florida’s annual opponent from the SEC West.
“This year’s schedule won’t be a template for future schedules,” Dooley wrote, “rather a one-year stop-gap until the [athletic directors] can sit down and form a working schedule for future years.”
Below is an approximation of the Gators’ 2012 schedule with known dates included:
Sept. 1 – vs. Bowling Green
Sept. 8 – at Texas A&M
Sept. 15 – at Tennessee
Sept. 22-Oct. 20 – TBA
Oct. 27 – vs. Georgia (Jacksonville)
Nov. 3-10 – TBA
Nov. 17 – vs. Jacksonville State
Nov. 24 – at Florida State
SEC East games to add: vs. Kentucky, vs. Missouri, vs. South Carolina, at Vanderbilt
SEC West games to add: vs. LSU
Non-conference games to add: vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
Florida was previously scheduled to host Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 8.
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