Florida football almost earned its first shutout since 2021 on Friday in the Gasparilla Bowl, allowing a last-minute touchdown and two-point conversion to the Tulane Green Wave in its 33-8 victory.
The win gives the Gators an 8-5 record in a season that many expected a far much worse finish for [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and his crew. A four-game winning streak that included a pair of top-25 teams as well as a conference championship game participant not only helped save the skipper his job but reignited the fanbase in a way unseen in several years.
It was a long and winding road for Florida this fall and ESPN’s Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings have been tracking its progress all season. Following the opening round of the College Football Playoff, he released his latest numbers which were quite favorable for the Orange and Blue.
Florida football’s SP+ ranking, rating
After Florida’s win over Tulane, Connelly’s rankings raised the Gators from No. 22 in the last update out of 134 Football Bowl Subdivision schools with a 12.0 overall rating to No. 17 with a 15.7 rating. That places Napier and Co. between the No. 16 LSU Tigers (16.4) and No. 18 Louisville Cardinals (15.5).
On offense, the team fell two spots to No. 36 but still gained 0.5 points for a 32.5 rating. The defense made a big jump, moving up from No. 33 to No. 23; however, the rating fell from 22.0 to 19.0.
The special teams unit, which spent a few weeks as the top-rated corps in the country at the start of the schedule, remained at No. 3 while holding onto a whopping 2.1 points for the position room.
About SP+ rankings
“SP+ is intended to be predictive and forward-facing,” according to ESPN. “It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling — no good predictive system is.
“It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.”
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