Of all the great powers in college football, Florida State has the shortest history with the game -- a relic of the fact that for most of U.S. history, the state of Florida was a miserable place: hot, sweltering, and swampy. Until the rise of air conditioning, very few people bothered to live there. Thus, the college population of Florida at the turn of the 20th century -- when most schools started playing big-time football -- was not great. In fact, in 1905 Florida State College -- which had been going through various iterations since the 1820s -- was changed into the Florida Female College, and its enrollment was limited to white girls. It was not until 1947 (after returning G.I.'s had placed an enormous strain on the Florida college system) that FSU was given its current name and opened to male students.
The Seminoles started playing football in 1948, although they didn't beat the University of Florida until 1964. Meanwhile, Florida was benefiting from the enormous boom in population that continues to this day. Florida's growing population resulted in a tremendous surge of football talent that completely changed the geography of the game. Until the late 1970s, Florida teams were virtually never heard of at the national level. Since 1983, however, Florida schools have won 10 national championships, divided between Miami of Florida (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, and 2001), the University of Florida (1996, 2006, and 2008), and FSU (1993 and 1999).
FSU's rise to prominence coincided not only with the boom in Florida's population, but with the arrival of Bobby Bowden, who took over as coach at the beginning of the 1976 season. I can remember when FSU was the Boise State of the nation -- a virtually unknown program that had seemingly come out of nowhere to challenge the big teams. By the late 1980's, however, FSU was recognized as a national power.
On September 19, 1988, FSU played its first UCFC game -- and won, beating Clemson 24-21. The Noles then held the title for the rest of the 1988 season, losing it to Southern Mississippi (and Brett Favre) in a stunning 30-26 upset in the first week of the 1989 season. A few years later, FSU was faced with the most important decision in its football history. The SEC had decided to expand to 12 teams in order to hold a college football conference championship, and the conference wanted to add the Noles, who had always been independent. But the ACC was also looking to expand, and FSU decided to go with that conference. I have always assumed that a big factor in the decision was that Bowden knew that by joining the ACC, he would have a great chance to go undefeated almost every year. And in fact, FSU finished in the top 4 of the AP poll in every season from 1987 to 1999 -- an unbelievable record, and one that was very frustrating to SEC fans.
FSU re-took the UCFC toward the end of its run, beating North Carolina State 42-11 on September 18, 1999. Again, the Noles kept the title throughout the season, which ended with a 46-29 victory over Virginia Tech (and Michael Vick) in the Sugar Bowl to win the national championship. In fact, FSU kept the title until October 7, 2000, when the Noles were finally beaten by Miami of Florida, 27-24. At that point, thanks to its two long runs with the title, FSU had an incredible record of 25-2 in UCFC competition.
But that was the end of the dynasty. Bobby Bowden had crossed some type of threshold that meant he could no longer continue to stockpile the incredible levels of talent that he had enjoyed throughout the 1990s. FSU began to falter, and the Noles have not been a power since the 2000 season. In fact, FSU has now lost its last four trips to the UCFC game -- the 2000 loss to Miami was followed by losses to Miami in 2001 and 2002, as well as a loss to Florida in 2009.
Bowden was finally pushed out the door after the 2009 season, and FSU appears to be returning to national prominence under Jimbo Fisher. If Fisher is able to recruit as well as Bowden once did, the college football landscape could once again be tilted toward Tallahassee.
