Following a 3-0 start to the 2024-25 college basketball season, the Florida Gators are ranked 35th on the ESPN Basketball Power Index.
The Orange and Blue sport a 12.6 BPI, broken down further as 7.7 (20th) on offense and 4.8 (66th) on defense.
“The College Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward,” ESPN explains. “BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team’s W-L record is to achieve. Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day’s rest and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections.”
ESPN BPI Projections
ESPN projects Florida to finish the season with a 19-11 overall record and a 9-9 record in conference play based on results to date and BPI-based projections for remaining scheduled games. The Gators only have 1.3% odds to win the conference. Florida faces the 32nd-toughest schedule moving forward.
NCAA Tournament/Resume
Florida’s 3-0 start has the Gators ranked 23rd overall in strength of record, which translates to a No. 6 seed if the season were to end today. Florida has only played non-conference opponents ranked well below the top 100, which makes its strength of schedule very low (203rd). Many of these numbers will change drastically once the beefier portion of the non-conference schedule begins, and again when SEC play starts up.
ESPN gives Florida 0.1% odds of winning the NCAA Tournament and 0.7% odds of making it to the championship game. A Final Four appearance (1.9%) or Elite Eight appearance (5.1%) are both unlikely at this point, but a Sweet 16 (14.3%) and Round of 32 appearance (36.3%) have better odds.
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