GAINESVILLE — Stuart Bell, UF’s lone presidental finalist, experienced his share of championship success during his decade in the same role at Alabama.
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Soon, he hopes to win more titles with the Gators.
“I already have a lot of good rings,” Bell said Thursday on the “The Frangie Show” on 1010XL in Jacksonville. “I want some more of those.”
Bell has deep ties to the Southeastern Conference.
He served as Alabama’s president from July 2015 to July 2025, a span during which the Crimson Tide won two national championships and five SEC titles under Nick Saban. Before that, Bell was LSU’s provost from 2012 to 2015 and spent 16 years on Alabama’s faculty from 1986 to 2002.
The 69-year-old earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and a bachelors degree in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M long before the Aggies joined the league.
Bell’s passion and interest in college athletics will serve him well if the school’s Board of Trustees approves him following a formal interview June 10, followed by a vote. The state’s Board of Governors has final approval.
Over the years, he has witnessed the expectations in Gainesville and throughout the premiere athletics conference.
“Gator Nation, they’re used to winning,” he said.
Bell knows the SEC’s competitive landscape well. He served as president of the conference from 2023 to 2025 and on its Executive Committee from 2021 to 2025.
“We all have the same target,” he said. “That’s to make sure that our athletic plan is able to compete at the highest level, and my expectation is win some championships.”
While at Alabama, Bell attended Heisman Trophy ceremonies, including those honoring Crimson Tide winners DeVonta Smith in 2020 and Bryce Young in 2021. There, he met Florida legends Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow.
“I actually stood up with some of those guys and got to know them,” Bell said. “They’re just a lot of fun.”
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Bell said he appreciates the pageantry and traditions that define college football programs.
“I think about just the traditions that have meant so much at Florida, and traditions matter,” he said. “I know there’s a lot around the Gator Bait (cheer). It’s meaningful to the Gator family. I hope we’re able to have some really great conversations around that.”
Former UF President Kent Fuchs announced in June 2020 that Florida’s band would no longer play the musical cue prompting fans to chant “Gator Bait” because of concerns about possible racial undertones. Art depicting alligator hunters using Black babies to lure the animals into the open was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The decision came amid a broader national reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
Bell emerged as the sole finalist as UF president after the school began its third presidential search in four years in December 2025. Florida’s Board of Governors rejected the selection of Dr. Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, in June 2025.
UF’s Board of Trustees subsequently extended the contract of Fuchs, who had served as the university’s interim president since Aug. 1, 2024, after serving in the position from 2015 until 2023.
Donald W. Landry, a professor of medicine at Columbia University, has served as interim president since September 2025.
Bell would become UF’s first permanent president since Ben Sasse resigned in July 2024, fewer than 18 months after taking office. Sasse said he stepped down to help care for his wife as she dealt with epilepsy.
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Sasse was diagnosed in December 2025 with stage-four pancreatic cancer.
Edgar Thompson can be reached at [email protected]