New Bowl Game, Familiar Matchup Trending For Florida Gators

The Florida Gators are now projected to play in a familiar bowl game against a postseason opponent they have gotten too familiar with

This matchup will give you some serious Deja Vu / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Since the release of the latest bowl projections on Monday, a new bowl has started to amerge for the Florida Gators. The latest picks are sending the Florida Gators to the ReliaQuest Bowl (formerly Outback Bowl) in Tampa on Dec. 31. Kickoff is at noon.

Outlets to project the matchup are the College Football Network, the Action Network and 247 Sports.

The Gators last played in the ReliaQuest Bowl back in 2016 when it was still known as the Outback Bowl. They took down the Iowa Hawkeyes 30-3. They have played in this Tampa-based bowl game five times.

Now, the big part of this is the matchup, and Gators fans will likely do nothing less than loathe the potential matchup. All three outlets project a matchup with Michigan.

That's right. Michigan. Again.

Just as everyone thought the Gators had escaped this bowl matchup. I guess Billy Napier has to have his last right of passage.

Before 2003, the two teams had never played each other in their century-old programs. Since they met for the first time, coincidently, in the 2003 Outback Bowl, they've met a total of five times.

The Wolverines hold a 4-1 record overall, winning the first four meet-ups. Four of these matchups came in bowl games, while one came in the regular season. It was still a neutral site bout, played at AT&T Stadium, the Dallas Cowboys stadium (also known to many as Jerry World) in Arlington, Texas

Florida finally beat Michigan in the 2018 Peach Bowl when they clobbered them 41-15 in Mullen's first season as the head coach.

This would be the second rematch bowl game between the two schools. The two have played in the Citrus Bowl twice, though for the first game, it was just the Capital One Bowl.

Three of the matchups came in consecutive years (2016 to 2018), making Gators fans sick of seeing the Wolverines. Even if it's been a few years now, the idea of jumping back in will excite them just as much as another road game against Texas A&M.

Both teams finished 7-5 and unranked this season and received votes in the recent AP Poll. However, both teams had very different paths to this point.

The Gators had a rocky start, losing to Miami and A&M before having a rough win over Mississippi State. Billy Napier's job hung in the balance. But sure enough, they rallied to have their strongest finish in some time.

On the flip side, the defending national champions did not follow it up with a good year. After winning four of their first five, they lost four of their next six to drop out of the AP Top 25. In their defense, they're under a new head coach and a record 13 players went to the draft. They also still pulled off another win over Ohio State to potentially put Ryan Day's job in jeopardy.

The official announcement will come on Sunday, Dec. 8 during the selection show on ESPN. The show will air from noon to 4 p.m.