Last Year: Florida State won 30-7 Series Record: Florida leads 26-17-2 Recently: The Seminoles have won the past three after Florida had won two in a row.

The nation's 'hottest' rivalry

FSU's Mario Edwards took a bite out of the Gators in '98.(Allsport)   Move over Michigan-Ohio State, Southern Cal-Notre Dame and Nebraska-Oklahoma. Those rivalries have all reached a fever pitch at various times in the past 30 years, but now the emergence of the Florida-Florida State game in the 1990s and into the new millenium has enabled this in-state war to ascend to No. 1 on the national landscape. "I think it's the hottest thing going on now anywhere," said Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. Yes, that includes Miami-Florida State. They have faced each other eight times in the past six years -- including twice in the Sugar Bowl, with FSU holding a 5-3-1 edge in those games.

Recent games

2000: Weinke conveys his Heisman worth

FSU 30, Florida 7: Eventual Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke fought off the flu and threw for 353 yards and three touchdowns -- two to Marvin Minnis -- as Florida State completed its season with a surprisingly easy win over its bitter state rival. FSU dominated the entire game, but when Florida tried to make a charge back in the second half the Seminoles' defense came up with big plays. First, free safety Chris Hope intercepted a pass from Jesse Plamer intended for Reche Caldwell to stop one drive. Then, Tay Cody made his second interception of the game, this one off Rex Grossman, and returned it 58 yards to set up Brett Cimorelli's 33-yard field goal with 10:42 left in the game. Game story and postgame audio | Box score

1999: Unanswered Hail Mary

FSU 30, Florida 23: Florida State went into the game ranked No. 1 and in search of maintaining its quest for a perfect season. The Seminoles couldn't breathe easy until Gator quarterback Jesse Palmer, with his team at the FSU 40 in the closing seconds, saw his desperation pass in the end zone get tipped away by several Seminole defenders before receiver Brian Haugabrook had a chance to grab it.

1998: Victory slips through UF's grasp

FSU 23, Florida 12: The Gators had never won up in Tallahassee since 1986 and they missed a prime opportunity to break that streak. One play turned the game around in the third quarter. A pass by FSU quarterback Marcus Outzen, who was starting in place of the injured Chris Weinke, went right through the hands of UF safety Marquand Manuel, who had nothing but 75 yards of daylight in front of him. Instead, the ball went off Manuel and right to Peter Warrick, who scampered the remaining 20 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. Warrick also sealed the outcome with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Ron Dugans off a flanker reverse.

1997: Gators take photo finish

Florida 32, FSU 29: The No. 1-ranked Seminoles appeared ready to wrap up a perfect regular season when Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 20-yard field goal with 2:38 remaining to give FSU a 29-25 lead. But the Gators needed just three plays and 48 seconds to march 80 yards for the game-winning score. Doug Johnson (who was rotating with Noah Brindise on every play) threw a pass across the field to a wide open Jacquez Green for a 63-yard gain to the FSU 17. Fred Taylor followed with a 16-yard run to set up his own 1-yard plunge (his fourth TD of the day) on the next play to send 85,677 fans into a frenzy with 1:50 remaining.

1996A: Another No. 1 goes down

FSU 24, Florida 21: For only the fourth time in college football history, two undefeated teams met in the regular season finale as the second-ranked Seminoles hung on to beat the No. 1-ranked Gators. Tailback Warrick Dunn rushed for 185 yards on 24 carries and played a large part in FSU jumping out to a 17-0 first quarter lead before Florida rallied, only to come up short. A series of events in which other Top Five teams lost, Florida got a rematch with FSU in the Sugar Bowl and a shot at the national title.

1996B: Sugar is sweet for Gators

Danny Wuerffel(Allsport)   Florida 52, FSU 20: After the Gators lost their perfect season and No. 1 ranking to FSU in the regular-season finale, they made sure the Sugar Bowl rematch for the national championship on Jan. 2, 1997 was never in doubt. Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel, the Heisman Trophy winner, completed 18 of 34 passes for 306 yards and three touchdowns as the Gators scored the last 28 points to win going away.

Highlights

Law-abiding start

The series only goes back to 1958 because for several years, Florida balked at the idea of playing the former all-girls college in football. It finally took Florida governor Leroy Collins to encourage the schools to start playing each other before one of the now greatest rivalries finally came to fruition. Part of the early conditions in this series was that Florida didn't have to play a game in Tallahassee until 1964, which also coincided with FSU's first victory in the series, 16-7.

Was he in-bounds or out?

No game in the series evoked greater controversy, one that is still talked about, than the 1966 game at Doak Campbell Stadium that 10th-ranked Florida won 22-19. FSU fans who were there still insist the game was stolen from the Seminoles by a bad call in the final minute. Steve Spurrier, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy, had given the Gators the final three-point margin when he hooked up with Larry Smith on a 41-yard touchdown pass with three minutes remaining. FSU got the ball just beyond midfield on the ensuing possession. The play that lives in series infamy came when FSU quarterback Gary Pajcic launched a 45-yard pass to the end zone, which was caught by 6-foot-5 receiver Lane Fenner with 17 seconds left, sending the home crowd into a state of delirium. But official Doug Mosley ruled that Fenner caught the ball out of bounds, though many pictures of that play indicate that Fenner was in-bounds.

A knockout victory

One year after the nullified touchdown pass, it appeared the Seminoles would have to live with another crushing defeat. Literally. That's because quarterback Kim Hammond got knocked unconscious in the game and his return seemed questionable, but he returned in time to throw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to All-American Ron Sellers to give FSU a 21-16 victory, its first win ever in Gainesville.

Florida's Run

Starting with UF's 9-3 victory in Tallahassee in 1968, which was attributed largely to Florida defensive back Steve Tannen shutting down Sellers, the Gators went on the longest winning streak in the series by taking every game from 1968 to '76.

Bowden works his magic

With Bowden calling plays and FSU employing a free-wheeling offense, the tide in this series soon changed after Florida beat Bowden's first Seminole team 33-26 in Tallahassee. With FSU trailing 15-2-1 in the series, it rattled off four consecutive wins from 1977-80 that forever changed the rivalry because it was no longer a one-sided affair.

NCAA sanctions doom UF

In his eagerness to break the Gators' dominance and give himself some job security, Bowden got an unexpected assist when the NCAA put Florida on probation in 1985, handing down penalties that included major scholarship losses. That penalty eventually crippled UF's depth in future years, which contributed partly to FSU beginning their 14-year run of top five finishes in 1987.

Sixty-minute overtime

Bobby Bowden is 8-4-1 in head-to-head meetings with Steve Spurrier and none of those games was more memorable than the 31-31 tie in 1994. Florida took a 31-3 lead into the fourth quarter, but couldn't get any first downs to hold the ball or run the clock, and the Seminoles rallied with four touchdowns to tie it. The teams met again five weeks later in the Sugar Bowl (aka, a 60-minute overtime) and FSU held on for a 23-17 victory.

Heisman Trophy winners

Charlie Ward(Allsport)   In 2000, Chris Weinke became the second Florida State player to win the Heisman Trophy, which coupled with Charlie Ward winning it in '93, matched Florida's duo of Steve Spurrier (1966) and Danny Wuerffel (1996). Wuerffel and Ward have a lot in common, but mostly this: They both won the national championship and Heisman Trophy. In 1993, Ward passed for 446 yards and four touchdowns in essentially clinching the Heisman by leading a 33-21 victory over the Gators.

Noteworthy

• Florida leads the series 26-17-2, but is 0-6-1 in its last six visits to Tallahassee. Spurrier has not won at Doak Campbell Stadium.
• The game has been the scheduled regular-season finale for both schools since 1979.
• Florida State coach Bobby Bowden is 15-11-1 against the Gators. Of the 26 losses that Spurrier has endured in 11 seasons at Florida, eight of those defeats came against FSU.
• The largest margin of victory during this series came in 1973 when Florida State was enduring a winless season under its soon-to-be-fired head coach, Larry Jones. The Gators beat FSU 49-0 in that season-ending game in Gainesville. The Seminoles' biggest win over the Gators came in 1988 when they pounded Florida 52-17 in Tallahassee.