Last year, ESPN program director Dave Brown talked glowingly of the Gators and the ratings the team produced for his network. Typically, he said, ESPN always grabbed UF for its schedule when it was available, though Brown said last year's games were picked before Steve Spurrier bolted for the NFL.
There will be no Ron Zook bandwagon for the ESPN schedule makers.
ESPN, which gets the fourth, eighth and 12th picks in a 3-1-3-1-3-1 "draft" with CBS, picked up two Auburn games and a Tennessee game. Last year, it took three Florida games and then picked up another. The Gators will - at the moment, as schedules are somewhat flexible - appear zero times on a schedule that has 128 games.
That would be three times less than USF and even one time less than Central Florida. Throw in appearances by FSU and Miami, and the Gators are the only major Florida college absent from ESPN's schedule, though they likely will make a handful of appearances on CBS.
"College football fans are interested in teams that are good and winning and competitive and certainly Florida will get a look early on," analyst Craig James said. "If they continue to do well and the young quarterback comes through and the defense comes through, Florida will find its way to the television set."
Former college coach and current analyst Mike Gottfried agrees with James, though he seemed less convinced the Gators would work their way back to prominence this season.
"It's still an exciting football team to watch," he said. "I saw them (recently) at practice and they may be in for a season that could be a tough one. They just lost so much.
"By next year at this time, though, I think you'll see a team that I predict will be right back at the top of the East."
CBS owns the SEC rights and likely will pick the Gators for regional or game of the week coverage as the season progresses. Florida is scheduled to have its games with Miami (ABC), Tennessee (CBS) and FSU (CBS) televised nationally.
THE SPICE OF LIFE: The Seminoles are the only state school that will appear on all four major channels: ESPN (Maryland), ABC (North Carolina and Georgia Tech), CBS (Florida) and NBC (Notre Dame).
TEN ALREADY?: This will be the 10th season of ESPN's College GameDay doing live remotes from college football's best games. To recognize that milestone, GameDay will do 14 live remotes in 2003, the most ever.
GameDay has averaged 11 road shows the past four seasons, and its first road game was Nov. 13, 1993 for No. 1 Florida State at No. 2 Notre Dame.
SPOTLIGHT ON SUNSHINE STATE: Look for a new, aggressive approach by the Sunshine Network this college football season.
The network may be best known for replaying Florida and Florida State games, but it plans on bringing more pre- and postgame analysis to viewers this fall.
New to Sunshine will be immediate postgame shows for Florida and Florida State games, as well as some Miami games. When ABC or CBS leaves an FSU game at its conclusion, for example, viewers can flip over to Sunshine, which will have a 15-30 minute postgame show with interviews from the field and locker room as well as analysis.
Sunshine says it will break into its regular programing to bring viewers this network addition.
The other addition will be an hour-long highlight show from 10 to 11 p.m. The show will focus on the state schools, though if there are any other games in the SEC or ACC that have big implications for Florida or FSU, Sunshine will provide analysis of those as well.
Back for another year, The Bubba Burger College Kickoff Show will kick off Sunshine's Saturday coverage from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., 30 minutes earlier than last year's show and designed to draw viewers who can't wait for ESPN's College GameDay at 10:30 a.m.
Unlike College GameDay, which is nationally oriented, Sunshine plans to hit viewers with a state-centric approach, previewing and breaking down all the games involving Florida's teams. Frank Frangie, Brady Ackerman and Terry Norvelle will host, with live reports from game sites.
Sunshine, which recently unveiled a new logo, also is promising its new approach will appeal to football-crazy fans all across Florida.
"There's all new programing, updated graphics and an aggressive ambitious approach," Sunshine spokeswoman Amy Pempel said. "We know nothing resonates through Florida like college football. It just makes sense to expand."
LAST CALL: Fox Sports Net will again televise Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big 12 games, as well as three live USF games.
Though the Bulls game with Cincinnati was taken off the FSN schedule and will now air on ESPN, FSN picked another game - at Southern Mississippi - to replace it.
FSN also will televise USF's games against Louisville and Memphis.
