The Florida Gators have skyrocketed up the polls in the AP Top 25. After dismantling Ole Miss, the Gators moved from No. 21 to No. 8 in the polls. It is the first time since the Week Five poll in 2021 that the Gators have been in the top 25.
And yet, there could be a case for them being even higher and still being punished for lower preseason expectations.
Florida rockets into the top ten for the first time since 2021
This week’s top ten is as follows:
- Texas
- Georgia
- Notre Dame
- Miami
- Ohio State
- Indiana
- Alabama
- Florida
- Ole Miss
- BYU
Texas at No. 1 is fair enough. Georgia at No. 2 is fine. Notre Dame at No. 3 is weird because, for some reason, the computer rankings love the Fighting Irish even though they have had the No. 99. strength of schedule. Notre Dame also wasn’t super convincing against Michigan State.
Miami has the No. 108 strength of schedule, but they finally got to play a Saturday game, so hooray for them. Ohio State at No. 5, even with the loss to Texas, is fair enough.
Indiana is another team benefiting from its reputation, as they have the No. 109 strength of schedule and just had to survive Northwestern. Alabama has similar computer metrics to Florida, but because they are Alabama, they naturally get the nod.
If you are keeping score at home, Florida is one of just two teams with two top-30 wins (Ole Miss and Auburn) based on the Jeff Sagarin computer rankings. Texas is the other, and, for what it is worth, Texas is the only program with a better Strength of Record than Florida.
But again, because Florida was unranked to start the year, they have to find a way to leapfrog teams ahead of them, even when putting up a more impressive resume.
Does any of it matter at the moment?
No, technically no.
But now that Florida is going to firmly be in the playoff conversation, these semantics are going to start to matter. If these AP Poll rankings were the final playoff rankings, Florida would be the last team to get to host a first round game, and it would be a rematch with Ole Miss.
Lose to Missouri or South Carolina in the next two weeks and none of this matters.
But peel off two more wins to move to 6-0, and the road to the playoffs is going to be very real, and these rankings are going to start to matter.
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