The Florida Gators have been ranked 15th in the 2025 preseason AP Poll. It's the 3rd time since 2014 the Gators have started a season in the top 15, and it's the highest the Gators have been ranked in the preseason since 2021.
However, as we also know, the 2021 season didn't go well for Florida, despite starting the year ranked 13th. In fact, the Gators have only beaten preseason expectations three times since 2013. So, we will examine the last twelve years of where Florida started and where they finished in the AP Polls.
2024:
- Started - Unranked
- Finished - Unranked
Florida entered the year with low expectations and still struggled to match even those expectations. Even with the four-game winning streak to close out the season, the Gators finished unranked.
2023:
- Started - Unranked
- Finished - Unranked
The Gators did sneak into the rankings during weeks four and five and were as high as 22nd, but the five-game losing streak to close out the year left the Gators unranked.
2022:
- Started - Unranked
- Finished - Unranked
After the Utah win, Florida did ascend to 12th in the country. But as the year progressed, the Gators quickly slipped back out of the rankings and never returned.
2021:
- Started - 13th
- Finished - Unranked
Coming off the disappointing finish to the 2020 season, there were still high hopes heading into 2021. The Gators got as high as 10th, but the loss to Kentucky began the derailment of the train, and by the end of the season, Dan Mullen was fired.
2020:
- Started - 8th
- Finished - 13th
In the year that got away, Florida got as high as 3rd in the country and was still in the hunt for the playoffs until a show got thrown. A subsequent loss to Alabama and Oklahoma left the Gators lower than where they started.
2019:
- Started - 8th
- Finished - 6th
The last time the Gators actually finished ahead of where they started was 2019, when Florida started the season 8th and got as high as 6th. The Gators beat Virginia in the Orange Bowl, which didn't move the needle but cemented Florida in 6th.
2018:
- Started - Unranked
- Finished - 7th
Dan Mullen's debut season crushed expectations as nobody had faith in the Gators coming into the season, but Florida kept rising in the polls and finished 7th after beating Michigan in the Peach Bowl.
2017:
- Started - 17th
- Finished - Unranked
Jim McElwain's swan song started off with decent enough expectations, but the Gators kept slipping down until the bottom fell out and McElwain was fired.
2016:
- Started - 25th
- Finished - 14th
The Gators bounced around a lot this season and were as high as 10th after beating Georgia, only to turn around and lose to Arkansas. The Gators had their iconic win over LSU after a goal-line stand, then lost to FSU and Alabama, but finished with a bowl win over Iowa to finish 14th.
2015:
- Started - 25th
- Finished - 25th
The Gators were as high as 8th heading into the FSU game before scoring 24 points over their final three games to sink back down to 25th, right where they started.
2014:
- Started - Unranked
- Finished - Unranked
Prior to 2024, 2014 was the last time Florida went an entire season without being ranked in the AP Poll once. Will Muchamp was invited to leave at the end of the season.
2013:
- Started - 10th
- Finished - Unranked
Nothing went right for Florida in 2013 as the Gators started 4-1, before a seven game losing streak that included the infamous Georgia Southern loss, sent Florida out of the polls.