Florida certainly exceeded expectations. I noted this after the LSU win, they were playing hard, I thought. A good sign for them.
FSU ... well, they didn't. Probably a record collapse in one year.
As for academics, Florida has a good reputation as a public school, so do UNC/UVA/UM/Cal and a few others. But this is a football site. For nonplayers, it's of some benefit to have a degree from a better school, duh.
I interviewed a lot of candidates for employment back in the day, and the quality didn't really align with the reputation of the school often at all, which surprised me for a while.