Final computer rankings deliver the nail in the coffin Florida’s 2025 season earned

As we turn the page to 2026 and look full steam ahead towards the Jon Sumrall Era, there are still some lingering reminders coming out of why Sumrall had to get hired in the first place. Billy Napier was fired after having the worst coaching record in Gainesville since World War II, and he never really seemed to exude an ounce of concern as the ship was sinking at Florida.

One could make the argument that Florida faced a daunting schedule in 2025, and the win over FSU to close out the year was emblematic of a Gator squad that was better than what their record showed. The final computer ranking that accounts for the strength of schedule would tell you that no, Florida was not close at all to being good in 2025.

Florida finishes the year ranked No. 63

Bill Connelly of ESPN posted the final SP+ rankings on social media this week. The rankings aren’t perfect, but they tend to place teams in a reasonable ballpark of where they should be and go deeper than the standard top 25 that humans rank.

Coming in at No. 63 are none other than the Gators.

To put into perspective just how bad that is, Kentucky is the only SEC school Florida was ranked above, and the Wildcats dominated the Gators and got DJ Lagway benched.

Florida was ahead of dumpster fires like UCF in 2025, but lagged behind programs like Dan Mullen’s UNLV squad, in-state foe USF (who came in at No. 30), and multiple programs that also fired their coaches (LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas, among others).

The horse has long since been beaten to death, but Florida came into the 2025 season off their four-game winning streak to end 2024 and was considered a dark horse to make the playoffs. Finishing 63rd is a far cry from being in the top ten.

What’s done is done, but it is a reminder of Scott Stricklin falling for fool’s gold to give Napier one more year that led the Gators into the disaster that was the 2025 campaign.