The school's sports teams are called the Gators and compete in the East Division of the Southeastern Conference of the NCAA's Division I-A. Florida has one of the strongest collegiate
athletic programs in the United States and dedicates about $44 million per year to its sports teams and facilities. For the sixth
time, UF swept the overall men's and women's Southeastern Conference All-Sports Trophy in 2002. With its third-place finish in
the 2001-02 Sears Directors' Cup rankings, Florida has ranked among the nation's top 10 athletic departments for 19 straight
years.Gator Football reaches a national audience and the team is
often ranked among the top 25 in the NCAA. In 1996, the Gators won their first national
championship under head coach Steve Spurrier and quarterback Danny Wuerffel.
In December 2004, coach Urban Meyer took over head coaching duties. Traditional football rivals include the
Seminoles of Florida State University, the
Hurricanes of the University of Miami, the Bulldogs of the
University of Georgia, and since the early 1990's the
Volunteers of the University of Tennessee. A hallmark
of the Gator football season is "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party", the rivalry game against Georgia,
played in Jacksonville, Florida.Basketball is another sport at which the Gators have seen success. The UF
men's basketball squad appeared in the 1994 Final Four and lost in the 2000 NCAA Championship game to Michigan State. They are currently coached by Billy Donovan, who has been the head coach of the Gators since 1996. Florida's primary men's basketball rival is traditional SEC basketball superpower Kentucky - though the rivalry is felt more keenly in Florida
than in Kentucky.The Gators have also seen success in gymnastics, volleyball, tennis, soccer, and baseball. Since 1990, Gator athletes have won over 100
individual national titles as well as team NCAA national championships in women's tennis (1992, 1996, 1998, 2003), men's golf
(1993, 2001), women's indoor track (1992) and women's soccer (1998). UF's 164 SEC Championships are the most in league
history.Since 1968, 118 Gator student-athletes have represented 27 countries in ten Olympiads and laid claim to 76 medals, including 39 golds.