Florida Football: Gators are second best program yet to make CFB playoff
It’s probably not a ringing endorsement or a banner that Florida football will be hanging anytime soon, but a recent article by ESPN painted the Florida Gators as one of the top programs in college football yet to make actually make the college football playoffs.
With expanded playoffs on the horizon, this moniker may soon change. But it confirms the Gators have actually been a relatively stable program over the last decade, even if it doesn’t always feel like it.
Florida Football: Close but no cigar
The college football playoff has had its fair share of mainstays over the years. Alabama and Clemson were automatic for a while. Ohio State and Oklahoma have had multiple trips. Recently Georgia has bludgeoned their way in.
And then you have schools like Washington, Michigan State, and Cincinnati crack the code and make the dance.
Despite having seasons where it has been within reaching distance, the Florida Gators have yet to make it to college football’s final four.
Now no, putting up a banner that states “We’re number two…once you take out the 14 schools that have made the playoff…so in reality we’re number 16” isn’t going to excite Gator Nation. And frankly, if you told most Gator fans that Florida was the 16th best program in the country over the last 10 years, most would probably agree that sounds about right.
Florida has had some close calls to make the playoffs. In 2015, Florida was 10-1 with FSU and Alabama still to play. Win both of those and the Gators would have made it in. They instead lost both and were then blown out by Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.
For as much flack as we gave Dan Mullen, he had Florida on doorstep twice. In 2019 the Gators took LSU to the wire and fell short against Georgia to finish the year 11-2. In 2020, Florida was once again on the cusp on the playoffs.
But then they played LSU. Something about footwear being tossed.
Once the playoffs expand, the pressure for Billy Napier to not just make the dance but be a mainstay in the dance will be greatly ramped up. As it stands now, Florida football is still stuck outside the club waiting to get in.