The University of Florida 2026-26 college athletics calendar wrapped June 13 with the final event of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Yes, the Gators had their run of winning at least one national team title in each complete season since 2008-09 end, but when the final tallies came in the overall program had claimed the Southeastern Conference All-Sports Trophy for the 29th time (and first since 2018), finished sixth nationally in the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup, claimed five league titles and seven Coach of the Year awards.
It was a roller-coaster of a campaign, complete with championships, as well as some frustrating postseason moments, but also some newsy events that will impact the overall program in the years to come.
And with that, here's our annual year in review of top team stories, moments and achievements.
10) STADIUM PROJECT MOVES FORWARD
Future "Swamp"
No, it did not directly impact a result in the competitive arena, but this development (and those down the road) will be as closely followed and scrutinized as anything impacting those in orange and blue over the next several years.
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is inching toward a massive renovation, details of which had been scarce beyond UF athletic director Scott Stricklin's assurance in April that the traits and character that have made Spurrier/Florida Field — aka "The Swamp" — one of the iconic venues in college football over the last five decades will remain, including, the seating capacity of 88,000-plus.
Then came an official announcement, accompanied by colorful renderings on June 10 after the Florida Board of Trustees voted to advance planning and development of the project, with a formal approval vote on the docket for September.
Estimated cost: $1.45 billion, making it the largest such undertaking in the history of collegiate athletics.
"That commitment includes maintaining the historic seating capacity, preserving the iconic Orange Wing Walls, and protecting the unique bowl design that has defined The Swamp for generations. Fans will continue to sit close to the field and right on top of the action, preserving the intensity, noise and home-field advantage that make Ben Hill Griffin Stadium unlike any other venue in college football," Stricklin said. "At the same time, the renovation will modernize and elevate the game-day experience through expanded concourses, upgraded concessions and restrooms, improved accessibility, enhanced technology, state-of-the-art video and audio capabilities, and new premium hospitality offerings."
9) THEY'RE BACK!
Linebacker Myles Graham
The events that led to this development unfolded first and have their proper place on this list. Read on.
That said, it would have been difficult to imagine last fall, given the tenor and (frankly) frustration of 2025 football under Billy Napier, that Florida fans would be looking forward to a 2026 season that will include all five of the team's best players returning (again, off a four-victory squad) and fully embracing the vision of a new coaching regime.
The five:
* Junior tailback Jadan Baugh, the program's first 1,000-yard rusher in 10 years.
* Junior inside linebacker Myles Graham, who started every game and led the team in tackles.
* Sophomore outside linebacker/edge rusher Jayden Woods, who became the first true freshman in 33 years to lead or tie for the team title in sacks.
* Sophomore wide receiver Dallas Wilson, who only played in four games, but whose 111-yard, two-touchdown debut in the upset of Texas was a freshman performance for the UF record books.
* Sophomore wide receiver/kick returner Vernell Brown III, the fifth player in league history (and first Gator) to earn Freshman All-SEC Freshman honors as wide receiver, return specialist and all-purpose.
8) THEY'RE BACK! PART II
Coach Todd Golden (background) will have his "Big Three" -- (from left) Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu -- back in 2026-27 to defend the team's SEC title.
They didn't announce their decision together on a stage inside a packed, electric Stephen C. O'Connell Center - after all, no one could ever replicate the incomparable story of the beloved "'04s." But when, one by one — first Alex Condon, then Thomas Haugh, then Rueben Chinyelu — they chose to return for one more season together, it marked the program's biggest "run-it-back" moment since Joakim Noah and company made the same decision in 2006.
Haugh was a first-team All-SEC selection, second-team All-America forward and projected NBA lottery pick. Condon was a third-team All-SEC performer and possible first-round pick, while Chinyelu was both the SEC and NCAA defensive player of the year. Even in this very different (yes, and lucrative) ever-changing college athletics landscape, to have all three superstars opting to return to school borders on the unfathomable.
All three, of course, were instrumental in the Gators winning the 2025 national championship, as well as the 2026 SEC title and tabbing a second straight No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time run program history. All three, of course, were crushed by the team's second-round exit in the tournament and are coming back intent to right that wrong.
Florida will almost certainly open the 2026-27 season as the No. 1 team in the nation.
7) ANOTHER BANNER FINISH FOR LAX
And then there were 14, as in lacrosse conference championships, with the 2026 Gators (above) celebrating their Big 12 clincher against UC Davis.
Senior Day is always special, but the annual ritual/celebration takes on another meaning when clinching a championship.
That's what the 2026 lacrosse squad did on April 25 when it whipped UC Davis 19-6 at Dizney Stadium behind, per usual, outstanding play from senior midfielder Kaitlyn Davies, sophomore attack Frannie Hahn and keeper classmate Susan Radebaugh.
The Gators had clinched a piece of the title the week before at Cincinnati, but in defeating UCD the program ran its streak of consecutive victories in the Big 12 to 36. Since hatching the program from scratch in 2010, Coach Amanda O'Leary's teams have claimed a share of 14 league championships (during stints in the American Lacrosse League, Big Ten, American Athletic and Big 12), with all but four of them outright titles.
While the Gators ended the '26 campaign with losses in the Big 12 Tournament title game and first round of the NCAA Tournament, they'll add another notch to the crowded league championship banner hanging in the Heaven's Jeremy Foley Hall of Champions.
The third-ranked Gators headed into their final rotation of the SEC Gymnastics Championship at Tulsa, Oklahoma needing a special collective performance on the uneven bars to overtake No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 LSU.
UF answered by posting a dizzying 49.80 — the sixth-highest bar score in collegiate history — incluing a perfect 10.0 from senior Selena Harris-Miranda. And the Gators did it while the Sooners and Tigers were posting meet-high scores on the floor and vault, respectively, adding to the pressure-packed nature of the moment. When it was done, Florida's team score stood at 198.175, with OU at 198.15 and LSU 197.95, for a razor-thin 0.025 margin of victory that equaled slimmest in the meet's 45-year history.
The win marked the Gators' 13th gymnastics championship meet title in program history — its first since 2023 and fourth under Coach Jenny Rowland — and avenged the home meet loss to national juggernaut Oklahoma two months earlier.
5) XC EXCELLENCE
Women's cross-country was the newest addition to the Jeremy Foley Hall of Champions inside the Heavener this year.
Judy Chepkoech finished second at the women's SEC Cross Country Championships at Knoxville, Tennessee, but the bigger story was three of her teammates finishing seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively, with a fifth runner checking in at 18th to give the Gators five scorers, 45 total points and the program's eighth all-time team title.
Chepkoech, who clocked in at 19:47.12, was followed, in order, by Hilda Olemomoi,Tia Wilson, Desma Chepkoech and Reagan Gilmore.
The outcome gave Florida its first SEC championship of the athletic year but also its 267th all-time league title and further extended its lead for all-time conference championships by more than 100, while marking the 48th consecutive athletic year UF had won at least one league title, the longest streak in the SEC.
Gators cross country coach Will Palmer was named SEC Coach of the Year.
The run of success was just the first step for an even bigger achievement by the folks in the Lemerand Center. Again, read on.
— Gators Swimming & Diving (@GatorsSwimDv) March 29, 2026
How long ago was 1985?
Anthony Nesty was a 17-year-old at Jacksonville Bolles School being recruited for what became an All-America career as a Gator. In March, Nesty walked poolside, in his eighth season as Florida's coach, and watched as his UF men unleashed a spectacular showing in the 2026 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Atlanta and finished second, behind 17-time and back-to-back champ Texas, marking the program's best performance in, yes, 41 years.
The men won five national titles, led by Canadian sprinter Josh Liendo, who furthered his cause as one of the greatest swimmers in Gators history by sweeping the 50- and 100-meter freestyle and 100 butterfly. The team added 11 additional podium finishes, with Gators earning 25 All-America honors (20 first-team and five second-team) with 14 of the 15 athletes contributing to the team's total score. The squad shattered two NCAA records, as well as program, U.S. Open and meet records, set three pool records, won five individual titles and posted 11 program top-10 times.
3) RAVAGING RUN TO RARE SEC HOOPS CROWN
The Gators captured the program's first regular-season SEC title in 12 years, with a 34-point home blowout of Arkansas on Feb. 28.
UF, the defending NCAA champion, went to Missouri for its SEC opener on Jan. 3. The Tigers won 76-74, dumping the Gators to 9-5 on the season and, two days later, out of the Associated Press rankings for the first time since March of '24.
Seventeen conference games remained.
The Gators won 16 of them, combining for an average victory margin of 19.8 points. Only three of those games were played inside double-digits; two were against Kentucky, which UF eventually defeated for a third time in the SEC Tournament — just the second time in program history the Gators beat the Wildcats three times in a season — on the way to claiming the program's eighth all-time SEC title and first since 2014.
UF's conference rampage eventually netted the Gators those aforementioned slew of individual honors, with Todd Golden being named SEC Coach of the Year. Florida was tabbed with the third No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in team, plus a second straight for the first time. That's where the magic ended, however, as the Gators were dealt a crushing 73-72 last-second upset at the hands of No. 9-seed Iowa at Tampa, ending the season with a 27-8 mark, but also with some precious conference hardware for the trophy case.
2) ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES A CHAMPION
This was a common photo in the 2025-26 season, as the Gator women won the SEC Triple Crown – claiming the league's cross country, indoor and outdoor track & field championships.
The depth of the women's track team was on another level relative in the SEC.
The Gators used a talented roster of distance runners to win the conference cross country title in the fall, then teamed them with an equally gifted bevy of throwers, jumpers and sprinters to win the SEC Outdoor meet at College Station, Texas, and become the program's first so-called "Triple Crown" champion — cross country, indoor and outdoor champs — in 30 years; just the second program in the league (joining Arkansas) to do it more than once.
The two track titles were the 19th and 20th league crowns for Coach Mike Holloway, who might want as well trade in his "Mouse" nickname for something along the lines of Mike "Hardware" Holloway.
Take a bow, also, Alida van Daalen (discus), Gabrielle Matthews (sprints), Asia Phillips (triple jump), Layla Haynes, Hilda Olemomoi (distance), Judy Chepkoech, et al.
On June 13, the UF women wrapped the athletic season with a second-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Eugene, Oregon, seven points behind meet winner Georgia.
1) SUMRALL HEADLINES SEISMIC SHAKE-UPS
Gator Nation is hopeful that Jon Sumrall (center) enjoys results similar to the two (Urban Meyer, left; Steve Spurrier, right) book-ending him.
The Gators found themselves smack in the middle of a coaching search melodrama, starring one of college football's leading drama queens. Eventually, the UF search to replace Napier veered away from the high friction of Lane Kiffin and landed on the unbridled enthusiasm and program-building pedigree of Jon Sumrall, by way of Tulane, which he guided to a berth in the 2025 College Football Playoff.
The 43-year-old Sumrall, a standout linebacker at Kentucky more than two decades ago, went 43-12 over four seasons at Troy (2022-23) and Tulane ('24-25), including a combined 28-4 mark in league play while reaching conference championship games in all four seasons, winning three of them.
In replacing Napier — who at 22-23 in his four seasons became the first Florida head coach (non-interim) to post a losing record since Raymond Wolf went 13-24-2 from 1946-49 — Sumrall wasted no time establishing himself as an anti-Napier high-energy presence who did not come to town with a three- or four-year plan.
"I will never back down,'' Sumrall said. "We're going to do everything we can to win fast. I have a plan for how we can win long-term, but I want to win tomorrow and today and every day. I respect that the Florida fan base is not patient. They want to win right now, too. You've got the right coach."
The leadership change was not limited to football. Soccer and women's basketball also made moves.
A month after the Napier move, UF moved on from soccer coach Samantha Bohon, who went 18-34-2 over four seasons, with just five SEC victories during her tenure. Enter Nick Zimmerman, who as both an assistant and head coach at Mississippi State the last seven seasons turned the Bulldogs from a SEC cellar-dweller to NCAA Tournament regular, as well as unbeaten league champion in '24. Promoted to head coach in '25, Zimmerman's first team went 12-7-1 overall, defeating top-ranked Tennessee along the way. Known as a dogged recruiter, he arrived in Gainesville in December and immediately began overhauling the roster.
On March 9, following a fourth consecutive 5-11 season in SEC play, UF announced it was parting ways with women's basketball coach Kelly Rae Finley after five seasons. Two weeks later, Tammi Reiss stood at a podium in the Heavener, mere days after wrapping a 28-win season at Rhode Island and leading the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament in 30 years, and talked of sweeping culture changes and winning ways on the horizon for a program that's been spinning its wheels for a quarter-century.
Reiss, a former All-America guard at Virginia and top-five WNBA draft pick, did not mince words with the media or the players she inherited. In fact, nine of the 10 leftovers chose to enter the transfer portal rather than go through what figures to be a challenging, tone-setting chance of scenery under Reiss, 55, whose resume runs the gamut from coaching to the business sector. She is a builder. In her first couple months, Reiss combed the portal and ultimately landed a transfer class that ranked among the top 15 in the country, but the real work will begin over the summer.
And in the case of all three sports, the real results will be anticipated in the fall.
![Images from the Florida Gators August 2024 Graduation event on Friday, August 9, 2024 at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainesville, FL. [Photo: Matt Pendleton Photography for Florida Gators Athletics]](https://images.sidearmdev.com/resize?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdxbhsrqyrr690.cloudfront.net%2Fsidearm.nextgen.sites%2Fgatorzone.com%2Fimages%2F2025%2F4%2F30%2FCap_commencement_detail_240809_1400_Matt_Pendleton_Photography_for_Florida_Gators_Athletics__1_.jpg&height=340&type=webp)
