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The sunshine state has long been a hotbed for college football. With an abundance of high school talent leaving for college every year, Florida schools have their pick of the litter of some of the nation's best athletes. For as long as anyone can remember, at least one of the big three (Florida, Florida State and Miami) has been a factor in the national championship picture. In the past ten years, all three of these schools have won national titles: Florida State in 1999, Miami in 2001 and Florida in 2006. During that same time period, however, these three schools have traversed dramatically different paths to arrive at their current circumstance. Furthermore, in a state where most believed that no other schools could compete in either recruiting or ranking, the Universities of Central and South Florida have both become presences in their own right.

Flash back to 1998, if you will. Florida State was about to embark on the greatest season in the school's history. In 1999, Bobby Bowden coached his Seminoles to an undefeated season and an ultimate victory over the Michael Vick-led Virginia Tech Hokies. Steve Spurrier was still coaching at Florida, but after winning a national championship only several years prior, the Ol' Ball Coach seemed to have lost his edge on the Swamp's sidelines. The Washington Redskins would soon come calling. Miami, under Butch Davis, was just starting to recover from athletic sanctions suffered by the Dennis Erickson regime. Larry Coker would take over in 2001, leading Miami to a perfect 12-0. Coker took them back to the championship game in 2003, only to lose to in overtime to Ohio State. At Central Florida, Mike Kruczek took over as head coach for a program that had only joined Division 1-A a few years earlier. Similarly, South Florida's fledgling football program had only begun in 1997 under the tutelage of a young Jim Leavitt.

In 2008, it is safe to say the script has been flipped for all five programs. Florida State is far from the powerhouse it was in the 1990s. A team that once dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference, winning its first nine, consecutive conference titles, has not won an ACC crown since 2005. The school continues to have off-the-field problems with its student athletes. Their traditional dominance over Florida has also waned, having dropped four straight meetings. All this has some Seminole faithful questioning whether Bobby Bowden should finally hand over the reins to his successor. The

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