How Much Florida Paid USF for Game Revealed After Gators' Stunning Loss

The No. 13-ranked Florida Gators were stunned at the Swamp on Saturday, as unranked South Florida pulled off a shocking upset, securing the victory after kicker Nico Gramatica nailed a 20-yarder as time expired. It was surprising enough that the Gators were outplayed by an 18.5-point underdog in the Bulls.

What made the loss even worse is that the Gators, as other blue blood teams in college football commonly do in these arrangements, paid the Bulls to play them.

As part of a two-for-one scheduling deal that began in 2021, the Gators paid the Bulls $500,000 to play at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, according to records obtained by The Gainesville Sun back in May. As part of two other games in the deal, Florida was paid $250,000 for playing the Bulls at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, then paid the Bulls $250,000 to play at home back in 2022.

But in retrospect, the $500,000 sum makes Saturday's loss—literally—a costly one.

It also might be in a figurative sense too. Florida, unimpressive on offense and undisciplined to the tune of 11 penalties, including two—defensive lineman Brendan Bett spit in the face of a South Florida offensive lineman late in the fourth quarter—that arguably cost the Gators the game, lost in such a manner that turned up the heat on coach Billy Napier.

Napier, who is now 20-20 in his four seasons in Florida and has twice missed out on a bowl game, is not very popular among the university's fans.

“Fire Billy” chants after No. 13 Florida falls to USF 😬

(via @rileyorovitz)pic.twitter.com/ifbpa3QZxr
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 7, 2025

How long will it be until the university's administrators share the sentiment?

"It's not good enough," Napier said after the game. "We've got work to do. You guys know it. I know it. Anybody that watched it knows it. We got to take ownership of it, and we got to go back to work. That's it."

With an upcoming gauntlet schedule against No. 3 LSU, No. 5 Miami, No. 7 Texas and No. 19 Texas A&M, something will have to change fast for Napier and company.