Florida has won three national championships, and every one of them came in a thirteen season window. Steve Spurrier won the first in 1996 with a 52 to 20 Sugar Bowl rout of Florida State, and Urban Meyer won two in three years, beating Ohio State 41 to 14 in the 2006 BCS title game and Oklahoma 24 to 14 in the 2008 game. Before 1996 the program had never won one. Since 2008 it has not been back to a championship game.
| Season | Coach | Record | Title game |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Steve Spurrier | 12, 1 | Sugar Bowl, 52 to 20 over Florida State |
| 2006 | Urban Meyer | 13, 1 | BCS Championship, 41 to 14 over Ohio State |
| 2008 | Urban Meyer | 13, 1 | BCS Championship, 24 to 14 over Oklahoma |
Two further seasons, 1984 and 1985, were named by minor selectors and are not claimed; the 1984 SEC title from the same year was vacated by the conference.
1996: The First
Florida lost once, 24 to 21 at Florida State in the last week of November, and looked finished until Ohio State beat Arizona State in the Rose Bowl and opened the door for a rematch. The Gators beat Alabama 45 to 30 in the SEC championship game to get there, then took the Seminoles apart in New Orleans, 52 to 20, with Danny Wuerffel throwing three touchdowns and Spurrier switching to the shotgun to protect him. It was the program’s first championship in 90 seasons, and the 1996 team’s 612 points were a school record. Our Heisman winners page covers Wuerffel’s season.
1995: The Team That Got There First
The 1995 Gators went 12 and 0 through the regular season and the SEC title game, the first unbeaten regular season in school history, and reached the Fiesta Bowl as the No. 2 team against unbeaten Nebraska. Nebraska won 62 to 24, the most lopsided championship game of the bowl alliance era, in a game the Gators trailed 35 to 10 at halftime. The 1996 title is usually described in Gainesville as the finish of a two year run rather than a single season.
2006: Leak and Tebow
Meyer’s second team lost once, at Auburn, won the SEC championship game 38 to 28 over Arkansas, and was chosen for the BCS title game over Michigan on the strength of that result. It then beat top ranked Ohio State 41 to 14 in Glendale with Chris Leak at quarterback and freshman Tim Tebow in short yardage, a result that started the SEC’s run of seven straight national titles. The 2006 team remains the last champion to average fewer than 30 points a game.
2008: Tebow’s Promise
Florida lost 31 to 30 at home to Ole Miss in September, and Tebow gave the press conference afterward in which he promised no team would play harder for the rest of the season. Florida won its last ten by an average of more than 30 points, beat unbeaten Alabama 31 to 20 in the SEC championship game and Oklahoma 24 to 14 in Miami, holding the highest scoring offence in college football history to two touchdowns. Meyer’s second title in three seasons came with a 13 and 1 record identical to the first.
The Seventeen Years Since
The 2009 team went 13 and 1 and lost only the SEC championship game to Alabama, which is the closest Florida has come since. The 2012 and 2020 teams won eleven games. The program has not reached the playoff in the twelve seasons it has existed and has had four losing seasons in the last five. Our page on most national championships shows where Florida’s three rank.
The Bottom Line
Florida has three national championships, all consensus, all between 1996 and 2008: Spurrier’s Sugar Bowl over Florida State, and Meyer’s BCS titles over Ohio State and Oklahoma. The 1995 team reached the championship game a year before the first title and lost by 38. Since 2008 the program has not played for one. Our national champions by year page has every season.