Needless to say, the Florida State-Miami rivalry is not what it once was.
Every year from 1981-94 the rivalry game was played -- with the exception of 1983 -- both the Seminoles and the Hurricanes were ranked. Seven of them were Top 10 matchups; four of those featured both schools being ranked in the Top Five.
From 1999-2006, there was another stretch of ranked-on-ranked clashes.
In the dozen years since, though, there were just three such matchups (2016, 2013, 2010). In 2007-08 and then again 2011, neither team was ranked; that hadn’t happened since 1977.
That history lesson brings us to the present, with FSU and The U set to meet for the 64th time later on Saturday. Instead of national championship positioning as in years past, the two programs, each sitting at 4-4 on the season, are fighting for a win that would get them a game closer to becoming bowl-eligible.
According to the Associated Press, and excluding season openers, this will mark the first time since 1975 that neither team enters the game with a record above .500.
That year, Darrell Mudra was in the last of his two seasons in Tallahassee, with Bobby Bowden leaving West Virginia to take over at FSU the following season. UM, meanwhile, was still four years away from Howard Schnellenberger taking over and turning around the program.
The 2-8 record for the Hurricanes that ’75 season and the 3-8 mark put up by the Seminoles serve as the low-water marks for both programs in the past four decades and a half. So the current editions of both teams have that going for them. Which, as we stated in the post right below this one, is nice.