Rivals UF & FSU Pull April Fool's Day Prank
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Two rival Florida universities worked together to pull off an elaborate April Fool's Day prank.
The University of Florida (UF) and Florida State University (FSU) posted a series of tweets and videos Friday announcing a merger of both schools.
"I have thought for a long time how important it would be for us to talk about combining the University of Florida and Florida State University," said Marshall Criser III, the Chancellor of the State University System of Florida
The presidents of both schools played along.
"What I really like about this is we will now have the largest research university in the entire nation," said Dr. Kent Fuchs, the UF President.
"We're both preeminent universities, so it's going a super pre-eminent degree," FSU President John Thrasher said.
They joked graduates of the merged school would receive degrees from both institutions, and said it would be based in Perry, Florida. between Tallahassee and Gainesville.
They admitted they hadn't figured out the new mascot yet.
"No way. There's no way. I hate that," one student said.
"Is this for real?" said another. "You can't just up and at 'em and combine both universities."
UF and FSU both changed their profile pictures on Twitter to reflect the new university.
UF's newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator even posted a fake front page announcing the change.
And the city of Perry tweeted the creation of a light rail system connecting the two college towns.
"It really needs to be about Florida against the rest of the world and not so much Gainesville vs. Tallahassee," Criser said while doing his best to convince people of the prank.
But students remained skeptical.
"Then there's no rivalry anymore," one said. "What is this? We all hate Miami?"
