Do the Utah Ute's Have Urban Meyer's Florida Gators in Their Sights?

Is Florida right around the corner for Utah?

Back before the 2009 season started, the University of Florida, at the behest of ESPN, toyed with replacing Charleston Southern with Utah as the season opener.

However, an agreement could not be made.

It seems that Utah feels like they have reached a level where they no longer have to play one and done games and opt for a home and home series. Notre Dame this season should be the last one and done game for the Utes for a long time.

By going to a home and home series, the Gators would lose $2.3 million by missing that extra home game. Keep in mind that the MWC doled out less than $2 million total per team from its TV deals.

For a team that packs in 90,000 fans, they are not likely to leave the comforts of the Swamp for the high altitude, colder weather and 45,000 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. That leaves a one and done game on a neutral field much like the BYU–Oklahoma game last season. That is where things fell apart last year.

"I was not knee-deep in that," Meyer said. "That was [athletics director Jeremy Foley 's] idea, and I think ESPN and all that. [Utah coach Kyle Whittingham ] is one of my closest friends, and it was kind of exciting, but somehow they couldn't get everything worked out."

Word is that Florida was looking to stay close to home with a game at an NFL location at either Jacksonville or Tampa. When that fell through, so did any chance of ESPN and Jeremy Foley setting up a match up between his and Meyer’s old team. That was a year ago, now the rumor mill is flying again about another possible Utah–Florida match-up coming.

With Utah moving to the Pac-10 starting next year, I am not sure that they would want to add another powerhouse team to the schedule. But with that being said, Meyer and Whittingham are both very good friends along with Jeremy Foley. Add ESPN into the mix pushing hard for a game with a story line that writes itself, and it is easy to see how this could happen and happen soon.

If talks have started again like some circles are saying it could be the first game of the season next year on ESPN. It should be noted that the NCAA granted USC a 13^th game, which adds more credence to the story that a Gator-Ute slugfest could become a reality.

When it comes down to it, the name of the game is money. ESPN, Utah, Florida and whatever neutral site is agreed upon would stand to make a lot of money and well the drama and story line writes itself.