Florida football did what most people did not think they would do this fall — win seven games and clinch its first winning campaign since 2020.
It all came together in the final weeks of the season as the Gators beat a pair of top-25 teams in the LSU Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels at home, respectively, before beating the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee on Saturday, 31-11. Now, Billy Napier can look ahead to the program’s first bowl game in two years.
The Orange and Blue were strongly favored against the Garnet and Gold but it was not a pretty affair. FSU coughed up the ball eight times and despite a 14-0 halftime lead, UF struggled to put the game away early.
Nonetheless, Florida moved up in Week 14’s ESPN’s Football Power Index rankings update.
Florida football’s FPI ranking, rating
Following the win, the FPI lifted Florida three spots to No. 22 with the team’s overall rating rising from 11.6 last week to 11.8 this week. That puts the Gators between the No. 21 Tulane Green Wave and No. 23 Iowa State Cyclones.
Napier and Co. clinched the six-win mark last weekend and have won out the remainder of the schedule. Still, they hold a 0% chance of winning the conference, a 0% 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 prediction was 6.8-5.2 last week, and Florida’s win confirmed that projection.
SEC teams in FPI
The Texas Longhorns finished the regular season in the top spot with a 26.5 overall rating — same as last week — followed by the Alabama Crimson Tide (4th, 23.9) and Georgia Bulldogs (5th, 21.6) among the top five schools.
The Tennessee Volunteers (20.7) moved up a spot to No. 7 while Ole Miss (20.5) fell two spots to No. 8 to wrap up the SEC teams in the top 10. Next up are the South Carolina Gamecocks (14th, 14.7), Texas A&M Aggies (16th, 14.3), LSU (17th, 13.5), Missouri Tigers (20th, 12.2) and Florida (22nd, 11.8) round out the top 25.
The remainder of the conference schools in the FPI are the Oklahoma Sooners (26th, 12.0), Auburn Tigers (29th, 9.6), Arkansas Razorbacks (36th, 8.1), Vanderbilt Commodores (39th, 6.5), Kentucky Wildcats (49th, 4.5) and Mississippi State Bulldogs (69th, 0.1).
Next up for Florida
That is the end of the regular-season schedule for the Orange and Blue. Now the Gator Nation waits with bated breath to hear which bowl game their beloved football team will play in this December. Stay tuned to this website for more information.
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