Jefferson–Eppes Trophy

Jefferson–Eppes Trophy
SportFootball
First meetingOctober 31, 1992
Florida State 13, Virginia 3
Latest meetingSeptember 26, 2025
Virginia 46, Florida State 38 2OT
Next meetingOctober 3, 2026
TrophyJefferson–Eppes Trophy
Statistics
Meetings total20
All-time seriesFlorida State leads, 14–5
Longest win streakFlorida State, 9 (1996–2004)
Current win streakVirginia, 2 (2019–present)
240km
149miles
Virginia
Florida State
Locations of Florida State and Virginia

The Jefferson–Eppes Trophy is an American college football trophy given to the winner of irregularly played games between the Florida State Seminoles of Florida State University and the Virginia Cavaliers of the University of Virginia. The trophy was created on the suggestion of former FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte, after Virginia became the first ACC program to defeat Florida State on November 2, 1995. To that point, the Seminoles had run up a perfect 29–0 record through their first 3½ years of Atlantic Coast Conference play.

Virginia and Florida State played each other yearly between 1992 and 2006, but the game never became a major rivalry (e.g., called "one of the lesser known rivalries in college football" by the Orlando Sentinel). The annual game was not preserved by the ACC when its divisional play began, and the Cavaliers and Seminoles began facing off much more rarely. In recent decades the games are sporadic but competitive: since 2005, Virginia is 4–2 against Florida State.

Virginia won the most recent trophy game in 2025 and currently possesses the Jefferson–Eppes Trophy in Charlottesville.