In the waning minutes of January 8, the Florida Gators wrote some college athletics history, becoming the only college in NCAA history to win national titles in both basketball and football in the same year. Only a handful of schools had won both titles in the same decade.
With ACs and fans turned off, windows open to the cool night air, the cacophony of helicopters, car horns, sirens, and fireworks made sleep an unlikely prospect for the first ninety minutes of January 9.
I laid awake and thought.
I realized that I was proudest of our representation— of those we’d earned the right to represent by defeating them in single combat.
The University, of course, but the state of Florida, too.
All schools, and education in general, in the Southeast.
The long-underrated SEC, now a powerhouse of college football, ever since a young fella named Spurrier raised the bar.
And yes, college athletics in general.
I saw OSU players helping Gators up after plays, and Gators gratefully accepting the lift.
I saw sportsmanship on both sides; not the frantic desire to pen a higher number at any cost, but the will to try and be tried on a level field of play.
That last, to me, is more spectacularly thrilling than any set of human acrobatics imaginable.
This game was played the way the game was meant to be played.
For that, thank you, Gators. For that, thank you, OSU.