We’ve done the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12; that means there is just one Power 4 conference left that is yet to be searched for its top rivalry, and if you were afraid that our final chapter of this little “series” would be merely a dud, you could not be more wrong.
Today’s conference is not just consistently relevant, it holds a history that is so decorated, its name holds infamy in the eyes of all who don't wear it—and that name is the Southeastern Conference.
Now it should come as no surprise that when a league has such notoriety amongst its counterparts, it’s due to a dominating assortment of members, and with them come some of the country's biggest and most-defining rivalries. But, we all know the rules by now: Only one can reign supreme as the best for 2025, and in my humble opinion, that honor goes to Florida-Georgia.
Believe it or not, this was a tough call for me to make, as in regards to overall implications, this one sat alongside several other pairings we’ll be seeing this fall. However, what gives the Gators and Bulldogs the nod is how said implications are all the more fueled for their upcoming battle specifically, in both obvious and not-so-obvious ways.
The obvious parts are that they hate each other and are going to make a point of playing their absolute bests against each other. I mean, that’s what a rivalry is all about, right? The not-so-obvious part is how their bests are likely going to collide a lot harder than many believe.
Think about it: The Gators were one of the most pleasant surprises in college football last year, going 8-5 when many had expected something closer to 4-8, and finishing the year with a different QB1 than whom they'd started with.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have a Bulldogs squad that just suffered its second-straight season with an undesired finish (at least for a program that had seemingly been flirting with “immortal” status at one point).
Florida going up, Georgia going down, to meet in the middle for a hate-filled clash, in a time where the SEC is the widest it’s ever been open. That shouldn’t just be 2025’s best rivalry from the Southeast—it should have a case for being one of the best in the entire nation.