Florida Gators News: Computers rankings like football’s chances, more

Depending on who you listen to, there is a belief that the Florida Gators will be terrible in 2023. Graham Mertz is the QB, and the defense will be filled with young and inexperienced talent.

The lack of faith from humans hasn’t translated to a lack of faith from the computers as ESPN put out their initial SP+ computer rankings for 2023 and the Florida Gators are 20th in the nation.

Now it should be noted that in these same SP+ computer rankings that the Gators were 34th to end the 2022 season. And while that may sound way too high for Florida, keep in mind that six of their seven losses were to teams ranked ahead of them and by the end of the season we discounted the win over Pac-12 champs Utah.

Florida will once again open its season against Utah, ranked 13th in the initial SP+.

Florida Gators: Softball seal clubs another team

The softball team for the Florida Gators moved up to number three in the nation after obliterating everyone at the USF-Rawlings Invitational in Tampa over the weekend. The tournament was highlighted by a 21-0 drubbing of Illinois State.

Florida took a road trip to Jacksonville to take on the Jacksonville Dolphins last night and the Gators made their opponent about as threatening as Flipper.

By the time Skylar Wallace hit a three-run home run and Charla Echols followed with a solo shot, Florida had already amassed an 8-0 lead in the third inning.

Because the mercy rule doesn’t kick in until the 5th inning, Florida went on to score five more runs and finished the game in five innings with a 13-2 beatdown of Jacksonville. Wallace ended the night 1-2 with two walks and four RBIs. Baylee Goodard also had a three-run homer and drove in a fourth RBI after being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Both teams will get on the bus and play again tonight in Gainesville.

Baseball to speed up game

In an effort to speed up play in college baseball, the SEC announced a set of rule changes designed to give the timeless game some time.

There will now be a clock put in place for batters to step into the batter’s box, as well as a clock on mound visits and pitching changes.

MLB has tried these out over the last couple of years and in reality, they have done very little to speed up play, which is why they are implementing a straight up pitch clock this season.

Perhaps the one interesting change is a 10-run mercy rule.

The Florida Gators open play this Friday against Charleston Southern.