Just over three weeks remain until Florida football kicks off its 2026 schedule inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Ahead of the upcoming campaign, ESPN released its final preseason update for its SP+ metric.
In Bill Connelly’s last data set of the summer, the Gators are ranked 20th overall with a 15.2 SP+ rating. That is the exact same ranking they earned back in spring when the initial numbers were released, though the rating has improved by 0.3 since then.
Looking deeper into the numbers, Florida’s offensive SP+ of 30.4 ranks 40th in the nation, while the defense checks in at 12th with a 15.8 rating and the special teams come in at 17th with a 0.5 rating. The data predicts an even seven wins for the Gators and has the team ranked ninth in overall strength of schedule.
The Orange and Blue are joined by 10 other SEC schools in the SP+ top-25 rankings, headlined by Georgia (No. 4), followed by Texas (No. 6), Texas A&M (No. 9) and LSU (No. 10) among the top 10. The remainder of the top-25 representatives are Oklahoma (No. 11), Alabama (No. 13), Tennessee (No. 14), Ole Miss (No. 16), Missouri (No. 19), Florida (No. 20) and South Carolina (No. 24).
About ESPN’s preseason SP+ ratings
Connelly uses four primary factors for his preseason projections. The most important piece is “returning production.” These are proven players within a program that should produce similar results. Next is “recent history,” which accounts for how well (or poorly) a team has performed in recent memory. A one-year boom program is less stable than a consistent 10-game winner.
“SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency,” Connelly states. “It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date.”
ESPN’s final preseason SP+ top 25 rankings
Here are the top-25 rankings (overall, offense, defense and special teams) along with each team’s average projected win total and strength-of-schedule ranking. Category rankings are included in parentheses.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida among top 20 teams in ESPN’s final preseason SP+ rankings
Reporting by Adam Dubbin, Gators Wire / Gators Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Adam Dubbin, Gators Wire | USA TODAY Network
