How FSU Fared Across the Board Against In-State Rivals

http://www.thedailynole.com/content.php/781-How-FSU-Fared-Across-the-Board-Against-In-State-Rivals


"Nine sports in total have specific match-ups where the Seminoles square off with either or both rivals. Obviously, some sports will have multiple games just by the nature of the schedule, while others will have only one contest. This also means that all losses are not created equal. Whereas a loss in football might have derailed the end of the season for Florida State, a mid-season loss for baseball would not. Here's a look how FSU fared in each sport against both Florida and Miami with some perspective to follow:

Football: 1-0 (Florida), 1-0 (Miami)

Baseball: 1-5 (Florida), 2-2 (Miami)

Men's Basketball: 1-0 (Florida), 0-2 (Miami)

Women's Basketball: 0-1 (Florida), 2-1 (Miami)

Men's Tennis: 0-1 (Florida), 0-1 (Miami)

Women's Soccer: 0-1 (Florida)

Women's Softball: 0-2 (Florida)

Women's Tennis: 0-1 (Florida), 0-1 (Miami)

Women's Volleyball: 0-2 (Florida), 1-1 (Miami)

Total Combined Against Florida: 3-13

Total Combined Against Miami: 6-8

Total Combined Against Rivals: 9-21

The "big three" sports are typically football, men's basketball, and baseball. These three sports generally bring in the most revenue for their respective schools and attract the most viewers. In this aspect, Florida State has apparently done well.

It won both its football and basketball games against the Gators this year. The former a 27-2 embarrassment in Gainesville, the second a nail-biting 73-71 highlighted by a game-winning jumper from Dwayne Bacon. Baseball is where Florida has a decisive edge in the category, as FSU didn't get its first win over the Gators until the NCAA Super Regional match-up before ultimately dropping two of three.

In a sense, this might distort the numbers a bit. Football and basketball only played Florida once, while baseball played the Gators six times. So the official record of the big three is 3-5, yet the Seminoles have the advantage in two of the three sports.

It's largely the same story for their match-ups against Miami, except now basketball is the one who disappoints. FSU lost twice to the Hurricanes -- one being a blowout and the other a close loss in Tallahassee. Baseball was a draw, and football extended its streak over Miami to six with a thrilling 29-24 victory this year at home. This time, the overall record (3-4) is a bit closer to conveying the results of the big three sports contests.

Athletic programs however, are bigger than just the top three. This is where FSU really drops the ball against its rivals. Women's basketball is the only other program that got more than one win against a rival this year and the only other sport to get even just a single win was women's volleyball. By and large, non-big three sports performed poorly against in-state rivals.

Some of them need to be taken in context however. The focus in tennis seems to be much more on tournaments and regional competitions, not so much on individual schools battling against each other. So while fans might view the 0-4 record in both men and women's tennis as deflating, it just doesn't have the same rivalry weight that the other sports do.

The records also do not necessarily align with the overall success of each team. For example, FSU women's basketball had the deepest postseason run of the three schools, getting all the way to the Sweet 16 before being eliminated. Both Miami and Florida were knocked out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The same goes for women's soccer, who made it to the College Cup after a championship year in 2014. Neither Florida or Miami matched such success.

Relevant news came earlier in the week when Florida's athletic director Jeremy Foley announced that he had chosen to retire after 25 years on the job. Foley was widely-regarded as one of the most successful athletic directors in the country, and the rise of Florida's athletics can be directly attributed to him. His departure leaves a serious hole for Florida to try and replace him.

Miami on the other hand, has just made more direct changes, like hiring Mark Richt as head football coach. There is slightly less uncertainty in Coral Gables in terms of future leadership, as the Hurricanes seem to be on the upswing at least when it comes to the three big sports.

Either way, Florida State's performances against their rivals this year left something to be desired. Single games are not especially indicative of a team's talent of course. Only in sports like baseball do we have multiple opportunities to see just how much better or worse one team is from the other. Fans however, still wish that there would have been more success against Miami and Florida for the 2015-16 academic year than there was.

The good news is that many of these teams are very close in ability to either rival. Naturally, this means that the year-to-year results for each individual team can have much more variance. The talent is there, as is the coaching. It's just about the individual game plan for whoever each team is facing. The Seminoles have a lot of talent coming back across the board for next academic year and hopefully for FSU, the rivalry results will be better."