Florida Gators land in the middle of the pack in preseason poll

On Friday morning, the SEC preseason media poll was released for the 2022-23 season.

Nothing about the order of the SEC East teams is too surprising, but Vanderbilt getting a vote to win not only the division, but the entire conference may call for a psychiatric check of all voters.

UGA is the clear favorite to win the division, which makes plenty of sense given that they are the reigning national champions, and have the most talent top to bottom in the SEC East.

It is worth noting that Kentucky is above Tennessee in the polls. Everyone is starting to respect Kentucky a little more, and admiring the job that Mark Stoops has done in Lexington, but the buzz all offseason seemed to have been pointing towards Tennessee being favored over the Wildcats.

Regardless, both UK and UT were seeded above the Gators.

Sure, Kentucky beat UF last season, and it can be argued that their program is on a higher trajectory than the Gators.

But the bottom line is that the Florida Gators own the Kentucky Wildcats, and a few down years don’t change that.

For what it’s worth, the Gators are currently -4 over Kentucky for their early season matchup.

When it comes to Tennessee, it does seem that the hype in Knoxville is at least somewhat warranted. Hendon Hooker looks to be a great QB, and Josh Heupel’s offense is showing more promise than Vols’ teams of the past.

But once again, the Gators are UT’s daddy.

They took the Vols down at home last year, where the coaches were checked out, the defense was going at 40% speed, and UF was coming off of the heart breaking loss to Bama.

Before people yell at me for being delusional, let me set something straight: I can like the Gators’ chances over these teams head to head and still understand why they’re projected to finish over UF.

The Gators have a tough schedule, so beating both UK and UT doesn’t mean a ton for the final standings.

Anyways, enough about Kentucky and Tennessee. The bottom three of the standings seem very accurate.

South Carolina is on the rise, but it’s unlikely they make a move this year that launches them very high in the division.

Missouri still has a talent issue, which is hard to overcome in the SEC.

Vandy.

All in all, these rankings actually seem pretty solid. The room for the most chaos figures to be 2-4, as UK, UT, and UF could beat each other up and finish anywhere in that window.

Keep up with the Florida Gators here.