Thousands sprinted from the O’Connell Center to West University Avenue. The entire, blocked-off street filled with a pandemonium of Gators fans, creating a sea of orange and blue.
Fireworks released from apartment balconies, people climbed street poles and “It’s great to be a Florida Gator” chants echoed following Florida's win against Houston on April 7, 2025, which secured the Gators’ third National Championship.
“In a good way, it was super chaotic," said Leo Graham, a 21-year-old UF computer science senior who took part in the celebrations throughout Midtown. “It was really claustrophobic, but it was still cool, because … you don’t really see scenes like that too often.”
Fast forward about a year. Florida fans are facing the reality they will not experience the same level of excitement. Instead, following a second-round exit to Iowa March 22, Gators fans will spend Saturday’s Final Four games without the defending national champions competing, if they even choose to watch.
“Campus felt like it did on any other day, which is different than last year,” Graham said. “Last March Madness, people seemed a lot more energized around campus and stuff, and this time, it was just normal. You wouldn’t even have guessed it was March Madness."
Noah Ralph, a 20-year-old UF electrical engineering sophomore, said he was at the O’Connell Center for the national championship watch party, and the atmosphere felt absolutely electric. He was one of the many students who sprinted to Midtown.
Following Florida’s loss to Iowa in this year’s tournament, Ralph, a Houston native, said he switched to rooting for the remaining Texas teams, but with them also eliminated, he lost interest in watching the Final Four and national championship games.
“If I don’t really care that much about the teams, then I’m probably not going to watch the games,” he said.
Rachael Durr, a 25-year-old UF geology graduate student, said that last year’s sports culture on campus surrounding the national championship run felt overwhelming. She completed her undergraduate degree at Oregon State University, whose basketball team had a much smaller following, she said.
She added that she lives near Midtown, so seeing the celebrations reinforced her shock at the school’s support for athletics.
Following the Gators’ exit from this year’s tournament, Durr said the shock of losing did not last as long compared to the shock of winning last year’s tournament, because she was used to losing during her four years at Oregon State.
However, she remains confident UF will bounce back next season.
“I always feel like the losses always amplify the motivation to do better for the following year,” Durr said. “The coping is going to be coping and it’s going to hopefully be better.”
The change in morale compared to last year is also being experienced in the surrounding areas of the university.
MacDinton's Irish Pub & Restaurant, a two-story venue located across the street from Murephree Hall, was among of the most popular bars during Florida’s national championship run.
Anthony Kurtz, the area manager of Sun Pub, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based hospitality group that owns numerous bars in midtown Gainesville, including MacDinton’s, said the venue sold out all 1,000 tickets for the national championship game within the first two hours of releasing them.
Moreover, the demand to get into the building was so high that Kurtz said he was booed when he had to tell the 200 to 300 people waiting outside the venue that they were not letting people in who did not purchase a ticket online.
Understanding how busy the venue was during last year’s tournament run, the 36-year-old said he and his staff looked at last year’s operations as a model for their plan heading into March Madness, focusing on adjustments that can further set the venue apart from competing bars.
For Florida’s second-round matchup against Iowa, Kurtz said they had a full building in the first level. However, a few minutes after the Gators lost, about 10 people remained.
Without the Gators in the Final Four this time around, Kurtz said he expects the environment to be wildly different, potentially leading to less business than the bar had during last season’s run.
“Gator fans party hard when they win, but they do not party at all when they lose,” Kurtz said.
Kaden Peloquin, a 21-year-old UF economics junior and MacDinton’s barback, said one of his coworkers sent a message in their work group chat after Florida’s loss to Iowa, joking that their rent was dependent on that game because of how much money the staff would have made with more game days had the Gators advanced in the tournament.
Without the Gators participating in the deep end of the tournament, Kurtz said he and his team are still trying to provide specials to create a good atmosphere. For example, they will have an open bar at Lil Rudy’s at Midtown from 6 to 8 p.m., leading up to the national championship game at 8:30 p.m.
Down at The Swamp Restaurant, staff are experiencing a similar situation.
Kylie Coulter, a 25-year-old director of events and operations for The Swamp, said that during last year’s March Madness run, specifically for the Final Four, a line of people camped outside the restaurant, with a line wrapping around toward Nine 31 Apartments. To show their appreciation, Coulter and other staff handed out pizza to those waiting in line.
Once the Gators came out on top in the title game, Coulter said, the staff unscrewed the white fence in the outdoor seating area so they could lift it up and allow fans to rush toward Midtown.
“It was insane and also kind of scary,” she said.
Building on that experience, Coulter said once Florida forward Alex Condon announced his return to Gainesville for his junior season, her boss looked at her and said to immediately start planning for next year’s tournament. However, this preparation seemed for naught after the Gators’ early exit against Iowa.
Coulter said that once the game ended, she cried standing behind the bar, thinking about the preparation she put toward the tournament just for the Gators to get eliminated in the early stages.
“I was just like, ‘I have so much free time now, like what am I going to do?’” she said.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the spring 2026 men's basketball beat reporter and a second-year journalism sports & media major with a media, management and production minor. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, and rooting for the Miami sports teams
