Florida Classic Tickets

Florida A&M is located in Tallahassee, Florida. The team’s official colors are orange and green. BCU is located in Daytona Beach, Florida, and their official colors are maroon and gold. Both the teams belong to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
The headquarters of Florida Classic are in Tampa, Florida. The matches take place at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The official coverage of the event was done by ESPNU until 2009 when it was taken up by the ESPN Classic. Blue Cross and Blue Shield are the official sponsors. The competition between the two colleges started in 1925. The first Florida Classic was won by the Rattlers who wiped their opponent off with a score of 25-0. However, the Wildcats got back next year with a score of 12-0. For the next nineteen games, the Rattlers proved to be the dominant team. It was not until 1978 that Florida A&M won the competition 27-17 after waging a sensational battle against the BCU team where they had scored nil to Rattlers 17 in the first half. This anted up the stakes. The spirit of competition between the two teams grew more intense from then on.

Florida Classic went on a hiatus for two years, from 1983 to 1984, because of a disagreement on the venue. However, demands of state officials and fans caused the universities to reach reconciliation. As a result, the teams played the series in 1985 which was won by the Wildcats 31-27. Overall, up till now, the Rattlers have won more games than the Wildcats. In fact the Rattlers have won the game for the last three years and will be defending their championship for the fourth consecutive time this year.

The popularity of the competition has increased over the years. In the year 1999, more than seventy thousand fans attended the game and made it the sixth-largest event to be held at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. Florida Classic played in 2003 recorded the highest attendance ever since the series’ inception. The event has drawn more than 1.4 million fans over the years and the numbers keep growing.

What has added to the popularity of the game is the half-time entertainment. A Battle of the Bands is waged where parading bands from the two universities compete against each other. People love this battle so much so that in 2002, the bands were given unlimited time to perform. They put up a show that was almost one and half hour long, breaking the NCAA rule of allotting only thirty minutes to the halftime. The commentators of the halftime are Horatio "In Stereo" Walker who represents the Wildcats and RJ Joe Bullard who represents the Rattlers.
On the whole, Florida Classic is a great, competitive, football event that offers more entertainment than you could possible ask for. So grab your Florida Classic tickets and be there to support your favorite team!