Greg McElroy explains why Miami vs. Florida is a Top 10 nonconference game in 2025

The rivalry game between the Miami Hurricanes and the Florida Gators isn’t a commonly played one. Despite that, there’s still plenty of intensity around it and fans love it when these two meet on the field. Now, for the second season in a row, it’s one of the most anticipated nonconference games of 2025.

College football analyst Greg McElroy actually ranked it as the sixth most anticipated game of the upcoming season. He’d go on to explain the logic on Always College Football.

“I love this rivalry,” Greg McElroy said. “I always have. It’s Florida at Miami. This game will be on September 20th. It’s an in-state rivalry.”

The Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes don’t play annually, as both teams have annual rivalries with the Florida State Seminoles. That doesn’t mean this isn’t an intense rivalry, though. They first met in 1938 and consistently played through 1987. A few seasons later, Miami would join the Big East and since then the two have played more sporadically. Miami leads the all-time series 30-27 and is 6-2 against the Gators in the 21st century.

In 2024, Miami and Florida met in The Swamp but it was the Hurricanes that announced themselves as a contender in a 41-17 blowout. That game put some massive pressure on Florida and head coach Billy Napier while also setting the Hurricanes up for their 10-win season.

“Last year, it was Week 1 and it was dominated by the Miami Hurricanes. At that point, Cam Ward came right out, asserted himself as one of the best players in the sport. At that time, there were a lot of questions about Florida and whether or not they’d be able to run the gauntlet. Fast forward to the end of the year, DJ Lagway emerged as a star for the Gators and they finished about as strong as you could possibly finish.”

The hope for Florida is that DJ Lagway will take a major step forward in 2025 and that the Gators can become more competitive next season. Miami, meanwhile, needed to find its next quarterback after Cam Ward was selected first overall in the NFL Draft. They went to the portal and got Carson Beck, an experienced quarterback coming off an arm injury.

“Well, Miami has restocked and reloaded. Carson Beck is now their starting quarterback. They have great personnel on both lines of scrimmage. Mario Cristobal has a legitimate ACC title contender again this year. At least one of the top two teams in the ACC, and I think if you’re in the top two in the ACC, you’re always in the mix for the College Football Playoff. They nearly made it a year ago.”

Florida and Miami are set to kickoff on September 20th. Both teams are going to come into the game battle-tested. The Hurricanes open the season against Notre Dame in another top-tier nonconference game. Meanwhile, Florida is set to play SEC rival LSU just the week before in a pair of tough road games back-to-back.