Seminoles

Bobby Bowden arrived in Tallahassee in 1976 and stayed for 33 seasons, turning the program into one that finished among the nation's top five for 14 straight years, from 1987 to 2000. Under him Florida State won its first two national championships, beating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl in 1993 and Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl in 1999, and collected 12 Atlantic Coast Conference titles along the way. The winning habit outlasted the trophies: the Seminoles strung together 41 consecutive winning seasons, a run that held from 1977 until it finally broke in 2017.

The nickname itself was chosen by student vote in 1947, the year the women's college in Tallahassee went coeducational and took the university's current name, though the program traces its playing history back to 1902. Since 1950 the team has played at what is now Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium, rebuilt often enough that the latest renovations only finished in 2024, pushing capacity to 67,277.

Individual honours have tracked the big seasons closely. Charlie Ward won the Heisman Trophy in 1993, the same year Florida State won it all, and Jameis Winston matched him in 2013, when the Seminoles beat Auburn in the BCS National Championship Game under Jimbo Fisher for a third title. That triumph followed years in which the program had slipped from the Bowden standard, and the swings have not stopped since: an ACC championship and a 13-1 record in 2023 gave way to a 2-10 collapse the very next season.

No fixture matters here like the one against Miami. The "Sunshine Showdown" has carried more weight over the decades than the in-state meetings with Florida.