LOOK: New Florida President Ben Sasse battled the Big Ten for football fans in 2020
As Florida works to decide its next president, the university decided on one finalist on Thursday. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) is preparing to resign his seat to take over the role — and he has an important tie to college football.
Sasse was the senator who wrote a letter to Big Ten presidents in 2020 when the conference was considering canceling the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He detailed plenty of reasons why football should’ve been played, including the efforts of former Ohio State star Justin Fields and former Clemson sensation Trevor Lawrence to make sure the season happened.
Of course, the season did happen — and Fields and the Buckeyes made the national championship.
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Sasse, 50, became a junior senator from Nebraska in 2015 after previously serving as the president of Midland University from 2010-14. The Florida Board of Trustees will meet Nov. 1 to discuss his nomination for the office.
His letter to the Big Ten shows what his commitment to athletics — particularly football — could look like at Florida. The athletic department saw some important changes to two of its highest-profile programs in the last year, too.
Florida hired former Louisiana coach Billy Napier to take over the football program and he had the team in the AP Top 25 at one point. The Gators are currently 3-2 overall — including a season-opening win over Utah — but are 0-2 in SEC play with losses to Kentucky and Tennessee. Napier’s group is now gearing up to continue SEC play against Missouri this week.
Meanwhile, the basketball program also hired a young, up-and-coming coach in former San Francisco coach Todd Golden. He got to work re-tooling the roster via the transfer portal, bringing in players such as former LSU forward Alex Fudge. The new-look Gators will start their season Nov. 7 against Stony Brook at Exactech Arena.