As we head into August, we’re getting ready for another season of that classic Florida rivalry: The University of Florida vs. Florida State. But for us, it’s not so much about the college football field as it is about what goes on in the pool.
There’s no denying UF has a reputation for doing well against FSU in the water. In fact, the Gators swim team has historically edged out their Seminole rivals by a factor of about 3-2 when it comes to swim meets.
But when we recently came across a huge statewide database of swimming pool and spa inspection reports, we started to wonder: which school is winning the Swimming Sunshine Showdown when it comes to health and safety? And which might be a good candidate for pool repair services?
So we analyzed the swimming pool and spa inspection reports from both schools over the period of June 13, 2016 to June 12, 2017. We found results that we think are pretty interesting. While both schools showed multiple violations in their inspections reports, one of the schools has definitely kept their swimming facilities in better shape this past year. Let’s go to the results:
Interestingly, each school has the same number of pools listed in the inspection reports. This means we can compare by looking at the total number of violations reported. So this year, we have to give the clear win to the Gators. Better luck next year, Seminoles! Overall, The University of Florida kept their total health and safety violations down to 9 (compared to the Noles’ 30 violations).
We included any and every pool in the Florida Department of Health database that was classified as either Florida State and/or FSU or University of Florida and/or UF, so we feel we got a pretty good readout of the inspection records that apply to swimming facilities available to students of each schools.
We had a lot of fun making this study, and we hope to do it again next year!
