At Florida, Arnsparger was tasked with cleaning up an athletic department which had been roiled by
NCAA violations and subsequent punishments. The
Florida Gators football team had been found in violation of many NCAA rules in the early 1980s and was still suffering under significant sanctions and probation when Arnsparger arrived, a situation which weakened the financial strength of the entire athletic department. More problems surfaced in 1989. Head football coach
Galen Hall was accused of committing minor rules violations, which became a major issue with the NCAA because of the just-completed probation. Though Hall denied the allegations, he was forced to resign in the middle of the
1989 season, and the football program was placed back on NCAA probation the following year. At about the same time, the NCAA was investigating allegations that the
Florida Gators men's basketball program had allowed sports agents to pay star players. Less than a month after Hall's resignation and just days before the start of the 1989–90 basketball season, long-time head basketball coach
Norm Sloan was forced to take an early retirement and his entire coaching staff was dismissed. Sloan subsequently claimed that the allegations were false and that Arnsparger's zealous attempts to clean up Florida's athletic department turned into a "witch hunt" that unfairly punished him and his staff. Later, in 1990, Sloan claimed Arnsparger and other administrators "panicked" at the prospect of the basketball team being hit with a "
death penalty" due to previous sanctions against the football team. Under NCAA rules, if a school is placed on probation twice in five years, the sport involved in the second violation faces having at least one season canceled. Former
Tennessee coach
Don DeVoe was quickly hired as interim basketball coach, but despite being the defending SEC champions, the team struggled to a 7–21 record and DeVoe was not retained. Despite having both of the university's marquee sports placed on NCAA probation in 1990, Arnsparger was able to rebuild Florida's athletic program by establishing better compliance procedures and by hiring new coaches who would bring success while following NCAA guidelines. In December 1989, Arnsparger hired
Duke University's
Steve Spurrier as Florida's new football coach. Spurrier, who had won the
Heisman Trophy as Florida's quarterback in
1966, would become the school's all-time wins leader in his twelve years in Gainesville, leading the Gators to their first six conference titles and the
1996 national championship. After the basketball team's disappointing 1989–90 season, Arnsparger hired
Lon Kruger as Florida's new coach. Kruger led the Gators to their first
Final Four appearance in 1994 and set the stage for later and greater success under
Billy Donovan. The university's overall athletic program improved under Arnsparger; Florida won its first three SEC All-Sports Trophies during his tenure, beginning an ongoing period in which the Gator sports program has been named the conference's best for 28 out of the next 32 years. During his time at Florida, Arnsparger was thought by some athletic department staff and boosters to be "domineering" and that, keeping with his background in coaching, he was "inflexible... sticking by his game plan at all costs.". In hindsight, observers gave him credit for setting up the university's athletic department for unprecedented success after his tenure.
Jeremy Foley, Arnsparger's successor as athletic director, credited him with "helping to right the ship during a very difficult time at the University of Florida." ==Return to the NFL==