The Swamp hosted a battle between two Sunshine State college football programs on Saturday night, with the Florida Gators prevailing over the UCF Knights, 24-13. The win pulled [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag]’s squad over the .500 mark for the first time this fall.
Not only did the crucial home victory improve the Orange and Blue’s standing in the win column, it also gave the program a boost in some of the rating systems, including ESPN’s Football Power Index. After Week 6’s gridiron action, Florida rose 10 spots to No. 36 out of 134 Football Bowl Subdivision schools with a 7.2 overall rating.
That puts the Gators between the No. 35 South Carolina Gamecocks and No. 37 Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Florida is now given a 31.6% chance of winning six games this fall — up from 14.4% last week — along with a 0% chance of winning the conference, a microscopic 0.5% chance of making the College Football Playoffs, a 0% chance of making the championship game and a 0% chance of winning the national title. The FPI’s final record predicts currently sits at 5.0-7.0.
SEC teams in FPI
The SEC is represented among the top five by the top-ranked Texas Longhorns (28.1), followed by the Alabama Crimson Tide (3rd, 25.2), Georgia Bulldogs (4th, 24.4) and Ole Miss Rebels (5th, 23.1).
The remainder of the top 25 consists of the Tennessee Volunteers (6th, 21.5), Texas A&M Aggies (12th, 15.1), LSU Tigers (15th, 14.0), Oklahoma Sooners (17th, 13.2), Missouri Tigers (22nd, 10.5), Arkansas Razorbacks (24th, 9.9) and Kentucky Wildcats (25th, 9.5).
Next up are the Auburn Tigers (34th, 7.5) and South Carolina (35th, 7.4) before Florida appears in the rankings. The Vanderbilt Commodores (41st, 5.9) and Mississippi State Bulldogs (68th, 0.1) round out the SEC schools, respectively.
About ESPN’s FPI
“The Football Power Index is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season,” according to ESPN.
“FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule.”
Next up for Florida
The Gators head to Knoxville next week to resume Southeastern Conference play against Tennessee. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.
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