So I ran into this today while playing on the interwebs:
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/first-and-10-its-not-just-lsu-vs-ucf-its-the-sec-vs-ucf-with-reputations-at-stake/amp/
It's an SEC blog, relatively well written and we were mentioned.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said last week he’d play UCF if the Gators get two home games for the Knights’ one. White doesn’t want that, and says UCF has established itself to deserve a one-for-one deal.
Realistically, if UCF hasn’t yet established itself to get those deals with the SEC, when will it? Florida recently agreed to a two-for-one with USF, and it might as well have been highway robbery.
The Gators are paying $750,000 for two games in Gainesville (total, not each) and receiving $250,000 (and 12,000 tickets; about 4-6,000 above typical road games) for the game in Tampa. That’s a net of at least $1 million over the three seasons because guarantee games typically costing Power 5 schools at least $750,000.
Here’s another reason Florida is playing at USF: the Bulls play in an off-campus, NFL stadium, and the 2023 USF home game will likely be at least half-full of Gators fans.
I remember when we made this deal. I did not like it because I think two for ones are stupid but the chance to beat UF three times did have an appeal; however, I did not realize the deal was as lopsided as it appears. Also, figured this would also turn into a nice OCS thread!