Since the Florida State athletic year has concluded, we’re looking into some fun aspects of sports that we typically don’t have time to survey in-season. The most recent Daily Nole Poll looked at the current Florida State rivalries.
We asked our Twitter followers the question: Who is Florida State’s biggest rival right now?
The results were very surprising.
With over 100 votes cast, FSU fans chose the Clemson Tigers as Florida State’s current biggest rival. Keep in mind that the poll was not limited to one sport, although Clemson winning three straight on the gridiron and the last three ACC titles likely is a big reason for the results.
The Seminoles and Tigers regularly face off in crucial baseball, basketball, and football games with at least one team being ranked. Most recently, Florida State baseball went 2-2 against a top-10 Clemson team on the year.
The Seminoles lost the regular season series, but defeated the Tigers in the ACC Tournament semifinals, 5-4. Three of the four meetings between the teams were 1-run games and all three were decided in the winning team’s final at-bat. Before that, men’s basketball teams split their series 1-1 as well, with the FSU victory coming against a No. 11-ranked Clemson after trailing by 18 early in the second half.
Florida came in a distant second place. While it is one of the traditional rivalries, each school has opened up a streak against the other in various sports. FSU baseball has lost 13 of the last 14 games against the Gators, while football and basketball have won five and four straight, respectively. Streaky rivalries sometimes lose their luster when they extend for a lengthy amount of time.
Most shocking is the Miami Hurricanes coming in dead last with just 13 percent of the vote. If one had to wager an explanation, it might be that the rivalry is concentrated almost solely on football. While it obviously exists in baseball and basketball, the level of attention on those two sports is comparatively smaller. It doesn’t help that Miami baseball has recently taken a dive and the basketball team struggles to get out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
This is not the end-all be-all of deciding Florida State’s biggest rival. We’ll have a piece later this summer with a lot more insight into the changing dynamics of the rivalries. For now at least, it seems that many fans think Clemson is the No. 1 threat.
Clint Eiland is the lead writer for The Daily Nole. You can follow him on Twitter @ClintEiland
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