Florida getting rid of SEC East championship signage at The Swamp is smart for 2 reasons

It’s not that serious in the first place. Still, good idea.

Over the last few years, Florida put up signage in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium that recognized SEC East championships by the Gators football team. That was cool, because winning a college football division is a feat worth celebrating. (Do not ask me what happened to Georgia after its 2015 and ‘16 East titles.)

Those signs are going away. That’s also cool, because signs aren’t a big deal. And as athletic director Scott Stricklin explains to 247Sports, it’s routine business.

“Part of it is we’re going through an assessment of our signage and our graphics at all of our facilities,” Stricklin says. “We don’t have any division titles listed at our facilities. Baseball has won a bunch of division titles but they aren’t recognized anywhere. We recognized SEC and NCAA championships pretty consistently across all of our venues in every sport.”

One fair response to this is to have no opinion on it whatsoever, because there are more important things in the world than signs in stadiums. But Florida’s smart to scrap the East championship signs, in my view, for two reasons:

1. SEC East titles are not SEC titles.

And you might as well not get made fun of by Finebaum callers for caring about them, if you can avoid that without sacrificing anything you really care about.

2. Georgia is probably winning the next several East titles anyway.

The Dawgs trounced Florida in last year’s World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. They clinched the East on Nov. 4, a month before beating Auburn in the SEC Championship Game. And they’ve badly outpaced the rest of the division in recruiting, as Florida sputtered under Jim McElwain and Tennessee did the same under Butch Jones.

Florida will someday win East titles again. But for now, why not do this?

The sign removal is, quite literally, preventive maintenance, even if it’s not intended as such. It also fits with a Dan Mullen vision to focus on larger things:

Via 247:

“That’s what Dan does. He is not afraid to be aspirational,” Stricklin said. “There are leaders who are afraid to put themselves out there because if you put a high bar and don’t reach it you’re afraid of being criticized.

”Dan, his confidence is such a high level. He knows the expectations are going to be to win championships, so don’t hide from it, talk about it. He’s going to be judged, all of our coaches here are judged by their ability to win at that level.”

It’s the second-most interesting signage news at UF in the last year.

During Hurricane Irma in September, some signage lost both its O and its D, in a fitting metaphor for the 4-7 season that would unfold in Gainesville.

I look forward to the next time The Swamp’s signage makes news.