GAINESVILLE, Fla. _ Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin said he would be open to scheduling a football game, or even series, with UCF.
The game would pit one of the nation's storied programs and the state's flagship university against one of fastest rising programs in college football and a university with the state's largest enrollment.
"I'd be OK with scheduling them _ in the right situation," Stricklin said.
Stricklin said UCF athletics director Danny White has never reached out about the possibility of playing the Gators.
Stricklin said he would be willing to pick phone, too.
"We haven't had a spot where we thought this made sense at this point," Stricklin said.
If the schools were to set up a Gators-Knights' series, Stricklin said it would have to be similar to the two-for-one structure of UF's upcoming series with USF, announced last May.
The Bulls will the Swamp in 2022 and 2025, with the Gators visiting Tampa's Raymond James Stadium in 2023.
White has said the Knights have to focus on scheduling home-and-home series, suggesting it would be unfair to a growing season ticket base to give up an extra home game and it would be financially difficult to give up about $2 million in revenue from a home game in exchange for a Power 5 host payout that generally would be less than $1 million.
"We do home-and-homes with like FSUs and Power 5 leagues," Stricklin said. "We haven't done any home-and-homes with non-Power 5 teams. I don't think we would start that.
"But I'd love to schedule them (the Knights) in a game."
Many wondered if UF (9-3) and unbeaten UCF (13-0) might face off as early as this postseason, in either the Dec. 29 Peach Bowl or the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl.
Instead, the No. 10 Gators will face No. 7 Michigan in the Peach Bowl and the No. 8 Knights will face No. 11 LSU in the Fiesta Bowl.
When the matchup between the two Florida schools did not happen, many posited Stricklin had used his influence as a member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee to block the matchup.
Stricklin had to recuse himself when the committee scheduled the Peach and Fiesta bowl matchups.
The committee set the UF-Michigan matchup in the Peach Bowl because the Atlanta-based game hosted a Group of 5 school two of the past three years, including UCF last season and Houston in 2015. The Peach Bowl staged the 2016 playoff semifinal between Alabama and Washington.
"People don't know. They give me a lot of credit," Stricklin said Friday. "I have more power than I realize, according to them. People are going to say things when they don't know what they're talking about and that's what happening there."
Stricklin said there is no merit to sentiments, if not accusations, UF is ducking UCF because losing would reflect poorly on the UF program.
"If you win the game, it counts one win," Stricklin said. "If you lose the game, it counts one loss. When I was at Mississippi State, they said don't play Southern Miss. We played Southern Miss. They had the same argument.
"To me, South Florida, you could say the same thing and we're not hiding."
The Gators and Knights last played in 2006. UF won 42-0 in Gainesville en route to winning a national championship.
The schools were scheduled to play again in 2007, but the Knights were released from their obligation, according to a document obtained through a public records request.
Instead of playing at UF on Sept. 1, UCF instead played a road game against NC State on Sept. 1 before opening its new on-campus stadium with a game against Texas.
The document stated the schools instead would schedule a game at some point during the 2012-15 seasons. Handwritten notes on the document dated 2012 stated UCF associate athletics director David Hansen indicated the Knights preferred to pay UF $100,000 in lieu of scheduling a game at the Swamp.
The first schedule change was made during former athletics director Keith Tribble's tenure. The hand-written note coincided with the tenure of former athletics director Todd Stansbury.
