Rattlers

Only one HBCU has ever won the Division I-AA national title outright, and it happened in Tallahassee: in 1978 the Rattlers beat UMass 35–28 for the championship. That season also produced an SIAC title. Beyond it, HBCU selectors credit the program with 16 Black College National Championships stretching from 1938 to 2023.

The 2023 season closed a different kind of gap. Willie Simmons took the Rattlers to the Southwestern Athletic Conference title, then to a 30–26 win over Howard in the Celebration Bowl. That team followed a program that had spent 2004 trying to compete in Division I-A as an independent, went 3–8, and dropped back down, and that had lost 20 players to an academic eligibility purge as recently as 2022.

Games at Bragg Memorial Stadium carry the name of Ken Riley, the cornerback the Rattlers produced who went on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame; wide receiver Bob Hayes, an Olympic gold medallist, is the other Hall of Famer the program points to. The stadium holds 25,500, in orange and green. The Florida Classic against Bethune-Cookman is a rivalry that has run since 1925.