Is Florida proving to be the strongest football state in the country?

It’s a great time to be a fan of the three major football programs in Florida. For the first time since 2006, all three Florida teams: Miami, Florida State, and Florida are all ranked in the top 15 of the AP rankings after week 1 of the season.

Sitting highest out of the three schools is the University of Miami at No. 5. They had an impressive week one victory over No. 9 Notre Dame, defeating the Fighting Irish 27-24.

The University of Florida Gators come in at No. 14 on the heels of their 55-0 win over LIU, which included impressive performances from DJ Lagway, as well as the freshman rookie Tramell Jones Jr.

Florida doesn’t have that big of a lead over Florida State, however, as the Seminoles sit just one spot behind the Gators at No. 15. Last weekend FSU, upset Alabama 31-17, causing Bama to fall in the rankings heading into week two of the season.

With the newly released AP rankings, Florida’s strength of schedule just became even more daunting as eight of its remaining 11 games are now against Top 25-ranked opponents (as of this week’s rankings). 

The remainder of Florida’s schedule now looks like this:

Vs USF

At No. 3 LSU

At No. 5 Miami

Vs. No. 7 Texas

At. No. 19 Texas A&M

Vs. MSST

VS. No. 4 Georgia

At Kentucky

At No. 20 Ole Miss

Vs. No. 22 Tennessee

Vs. No. 14 Florida State.

Though USF isn’t ranked, the Bulls of South Florida are coming off a massive 34-7 week one upset of Boise State, which put the entire league on notice that USF is coming guns blazing into this season and on a mission to make a statement. And whenever you have teams from the same state facing off against each other, you can count on it having a playoff atmosphere. And regardless of rankings, Saturday’s game against USF is a must-win for the Gators.

And then September 20 becomes even bigger of a matchup as a Florida upset over Miami would cause big shifts in the college football playoff standings.

If Florida can come out and do what they need to, they can prove they are strongest of Florida’s ranked teams and make a statement to the playoff committee should they survive this year’s gauntlet of a schedule.

As mentioned above, this weekend the Gators remain home in the Swamp where they will welcome the USF Bulls in front of a sold-out swamp stadium.

Miami takes on Bethune-Cookman this Saturday at 7 PM in Miami. And Florida State welcomes No. 19 Texas A&M for a big Week 2 matchup as well.