Florida has won the SEC eight times and every one of them came between 1991 and 2008. Steve Spurrier won six in ten seasons, Urban Meyer won two in three, and the program has not won it since. A ninth title, in 1984, was vacated by the conference for recruiting violations, and the 1985 team finished first in the standings but was barred from the championship by probation. Florida’s first official conference title was the 63rd SEC season.
Every SEC Title
| Season | Coach | How it was won |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Steve Spurrier | 7 and 0 in conference, the first official title |
| 1993 | Steve Spurrier | Championship game, 28 to 13 over Alabama |
| 1994 | Steve Spurrier | Championship game, 24 to 23 over Alabama |
| 1995 | Steve Spurrier | Championship game, 34 to 3 over Arkansas |
| 1996 | Steve Spurrier | Championship game, 45 to 30 over Alabama; national title |
| 2000 | Steve Spurrier | Championship game, 28 to 6 over Auburn |
| 2006 | Urban Meyer | Championship game, 38 to 28 over Arkansas; national title |
| 2008 | Urban Meyer | Championship game, 31 to 20 over Alabama; national title |
| 1984 | Charley Pell, Galen Hall | Won on the field, vacated by the SEC for violations |
Gold rows are national championship seasons. Florida is 7 and 6 in SEC championship games, with losses in 1992, 1999, 2009, 2015, 2016 and 2020.
Sixty Two Years Without One
Florida joined the SEC as a charter member in 1933 and did not win it officially until 1991. The 1984 team went 9, 1 and 1 and finished first, but Charley Pell resigned in September amid an NCAA investigation and the conference presidents voted the following spring to strip the title. The 1985 team also finished first and was declared ineligible in advance. Both seasons appear in some Florida materials with an asterisk and in the conference’s records not at all.
Spurrier’s Six
Spurrier’s 1990 team finished first in the standings while on probation and could not claim it, so 1991 was the program’s first title, won with a 7 and 0 conference record in the last season before the championship game existed. Florida then won four straight from 1993 to 1996, all in Atlanta, three of them over Alabama, the last of them on the way to the national championship. The 2000 title, a 28 to 6 win over Auburn, was his sixth and last before leaving for the NFL. Our head coaches page covers his tenure.
Meyer’s Two
Both of Urban Meyer’s SEC titles produced national championships. The 2006 win over Arkansas was the result that put Florida into the BCS title game over Michigan, and the 2008 win over top ranked, unbeaten Alabama was the first of what became a decade of Florida and Alabama meetings in Atlanta with the title on the line. The 2009 team went 12 and 0 in the regular season and lost the rematch 32 to 13.
The SEC East
Florida won the Eastern Division fifteen times between 1992 and 2020, more than any other school, including the first five and eleven of the first fifteen. The division was abolished after 2023 when the conference expanded to sixteen teams, so that number will not grow. The 2016 and 2020 division titles are the most recent conference honours the program has, and the 2020 championship game, a 52 to 46 loss to Alabama, is the last time it has played for the SEC.
The Drought
Eighteen seasons without an SEC title is the longest gap in program history since the first one, and the last five have produced four losing records. Jon Sumrall’s first team opens against Florida Atlantic on September 5. Our Florida vs Georgia page covers the game that decided most of the East titles.
The Bottom Line
Florida has eight SEC championships, six under Steve Spurrier between 1991 and 2000 and two under Urban Meyer in 2006 and 2008, plus a 1984 title the conference vacated. The program won fifteen SEC East crowns and is 7 and 6 in Atlanta. The 2008 title is the last, and the eighteen year gap since is the longest of the modern era. Our page on most conference championships shows where Florida ranks.