The Auburn–Florida football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Auburn Tigers football team of Auburn University and Florida Gators football team of the University of Florida which was first played in 1912. The schools have been members of the same athletic conference for over a century and were founding members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) when it was established in 1933. The contest was an annual tradition from 1945 until 2002, when the SEC expanded and the rivalry became part of a rotation of other conference games. Since then, the teams have met only four times. The rivalry has been closely contested, both as a series and in individual games, with thirty-three of the contests decided by a touchdown or less, including two ties. And though both the Gators and Tigers have each enjoyed occasional win streaks over the years, the overall tally is close, with Auburn holding a 43-39-2 edge as of the most recent meeting in 2019. It has also seen many upsets, particularly by Auburn. Lower ranked Tiger squads have beaten top-10 Gator teams on seven occasions over the course of the rivalry, including twice when Florida was ranked #1. Series history While the early part of the series saw Auburn and Florida trade 6-game and 5-game winning streaks respectively, the rivalry has evolved into one of the mostly evenly matched and hardest fought in the Southeastern Conference. The games have often had SEC title and national championship implications. As described by Gainesville Sun sports columnist Pat Dooley following the 2007 game, "Florida-Auburn delivered another game that made one side ecstatic and one side heartbroken. That's what it does." The first game in the series was played between coach Mike Donahue's Tigers and coach George E. Pyle's Gators in 1912, on the Auburn, Alabama campus of what was then called Alabama Polytechnic Institute. The Auburn Tigers won the first six games played by the two teams from 1912 to 1917, dominating the Florida Gators by two or more touchdowns in five of the six games. When the series resumed in 1927, the Florida Gators were experiencing revived success under coaches Harold Sebring and Charlie Bachman, and it was the Gators' turn for a streak, winning seven of the next eight. Beginning in 1935, the fortunes of the Gators and Tigers reversed again, with the Tigers compiling a 7–2–1 record in the next ten games