The center of the college football universe this coming weekend will undoubtedly be in Oxford, Mississippi, and it’s easy to see why.

Ole Miss and LSU are both top-ten teams with College Football Playoff and national title aspirations, but there’s also the added bonus of former Rebels coach Lane Kiffin making his return to Vaught Hemingway Stadium for the first time as the new head coach of the Tigers.

With all that in mind, there is a different game set to kick off around the same time in a different part of the SEC that will feature both extremely entertaining football and two fanbases with a ton at stake as well as plenty of hatred to go around.

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In case you didn’t know, Auburn and Florida are old rivals.

I’m talking very old rivals.

Before their annual matchups and bitter back-and-forth contests with LSU and Tennessee, the Gators considered the Tigers one of their biggest rivals, and the feeling was mutual on the other side.

These two programs have met 84 times dating all the way back to 1912, and from 1945 until 2002, they played each other every year.

Auburn holds the all-time series lead at 43-39-2, but the Gators have dominated the rivalry since 1990 when Steve Spurrier arrived in Gainesville, boasting a 12-6 record in that timeframe.

Former Florida Gators head coach Steve Spurrier. (USA TODAY Sports)

That’s not to say the Tigers haven’t ruined plenty of Florida’s best seasons in that stretch, and as a Gator fan coming of age during those years, I can speak to several personal experiences.

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I was a bit too young to remember 1994, when the Tigers marched into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as 17.5-point underdogs and handed the top-ranked Gators their first and only regular season loss that year.

I do, however, remember the 2006 Auburn team pouncing all over the second-ranked Gators to give that team their only loss en route to a national championship.

The very next year, a reeling 2-2 Auburn squad upset top-five Florida in The Swamp, giving then-head coach Urban Meyer his first home loss as a Gator.

That might explain part of why the rhetoric around this renewed rivalry is so toxic on social media this week, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

History is only half of the equation here, as both the Tigers and Gators are breaking in new coaches who just as easily could have been on opposite sidelines.

Auburn Tigers head coach Alex Golesh reacts against the Baylor Bears during a game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., on Sept. 5, 2026. (Getty Images)

Saturday night will be the first SEC game for both Auburn head coach Alex Golesh and Florida head coach Jon Sumrall, so this contest will be a huge early test for two programs desperate to get off on the right foot in conference play.

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While the winner won’t necessarily be out of the woods when it comes to proving they are ahead of schedule in year one, the loser will almost certainly be faced with some tough questions after failing to beat a team that is in a similar boat from a timeline perspective.

There’s also the added animosity Tigers fans likely feel towards Sumrall, who, by all accounts, was Auburn’s top choice in their search for a new coach last November before he pivoted to the Gators.

It’s highly likely that both programs ended up with the best coach for them moving forward – I personally think Golesh will be great at Auburn and I’m obviously super high on Sumrall so far at Florida – but on Saturday night, Tiger fans will be eager to prove that the man who spurned them for a different shade of orange and blue made the wrong choice.

Jon Sumrall of the Florida Gators watches a replay during the game between the Florida Gators and the Florida Atlantic Owls on Sept. 5, 2026, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Losing this game is going to suck for whichever coach, program, and fanbase fails to come out on top, and that’s why it’s so intriguing despite the fact neither team is ranked in the top-25.

There are plenty of football-related aspects that make this matchup a must-watch, too, though.

The chess match between Florida’s offensive coordinator extraordinaire, Buster Faulkner, and Auburn’s defensive coordinator DJ Durkin, who many consider one of the best in the conference, as well as the prospect of Gator running back Jadan Baugh going against the Tigers’ stellar linebacker duo of Elijah Melendez and Xavier Atkins, will have football fans salivating.

When you combine the off-field narratives with the on-field action, Auburn and Florida should provide one of the most entertaining matchups of the early season.

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Just pray for the losing fanbase, because social media won’t be a happy place for them on Sunday morning.