Florida football scored an important win during Week 4 over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville. The Gators had lost seven straight games to FBS opponents and were on the brink of completely losing control of the season.
Alas, the road win helped even the Orange and Blue’s fall record to 2-2 overall and 1-1 against Southeastern Conference opponents while lessening the hot seat under [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] just a touch. It also improved the program’s overall standings in various ratings and rankings, including ESPN’s Football Power Index.
Following Florida’s Week 4 win the Gators saw their stock rise dramatically in the FPI, jumping from No. 52 with a rating of 3.4 last week to No. 39 and a 2.2-point jump to a rating of 5.6. That puts Napier and Co. between the No. 38 Kentucky Wildcats and No. 40 Illinois Fighting Illini.
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The Gators are now given a 15.2% chance of winning six games this fall — up from 6.9% from last week — along with a 0% chance of winning the conference, a microscopic 0.2% chance of making the College Football Playoffs, a 0% chance of making the championship game and a 0% chance of winning the national title.
SEC teams in FPI
The SEC is represented among the top five by the top-ranked Texas Longhorns (29.1), followed by the Alabama Crimson Tide (2nd, 28.0), Georgia Bulldogs (4th, 24.0) and Tennessee Volunteers (5th, 23.8), respectively.
The remainder of the top 25 consists of the Ole Miss Rebels (6th, 23.8), Missouri Tigers (13th, 15.1), Oklahoma Sooners (17th, 12.1), Texas A&M Aggies (18th, 11.9), LSU Tigers (19th, 11.5) and Arkansas Razorbacks (23rd, 9.7). Next up are the South Carolina Gamecocks (29th, 8.2), Auburn Tigers (34th, 6.9) and Kentucky (38th, 6.7).
The Vanderbilt Commodores (54th, 3.3) and Mississippi State (72nd, -1.5) both lag behind Florida in the rankings.
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.”
Up next for the Gators
The Gators will be out of action for Week 5 due to their bye week. Florida’s next opponent will be the UCF Knights on Oct. 5 at 7:15 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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