Florida Football Falls Outside 2026 Preseason AP Top 25 Rankings

The first Florida squad of the Jon Sumrall era will enter the season without a rank beside its name, landing just short of the preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll released on Monday.

UF’s 51 total votes place it just outside the rankings, standing 27th in media voting just two weeks before the college football season kicks off. The Gators were ranked in the same spot and registered 147 votes in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll, falling just 11 votes behind the No. 25 Missouri Tigers.

The Gators ranked 10th out of the 13 Southeastern Conference schools mentioned in the preseason poll, with nine members cracking the 25-team shortlist.

Georgia received the highest ranking out of the SEC schools recognized at No. 3, behind No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Oregon. No. 5 Texas, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 10 Oklahoma round out the conference’s programs featured within the top 10.

No. 11 LSU, No. 13 Alabama, No. 20 Tennessee and No. 25 Missouri are the remaining SEC teams in the Top 25. South Carolina (10 votes), Vanderbilt (8 votes) and Auburn (3 votes) are mixed in with Florida for SEC teams receiving votes. Of those SEC teams, Florida will take on five of them currently ranked in the Top 25, facing Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Missouri.

The last time UF started outside the preseason poll and worked its way into the rankings came during Billy Napier’s debut at the helm of the Gators. Florida was omitted from the 2022 preseason AP Top 25 before knocking off No. 7 Utah in Napier’s first matchup as Florida’s coach. It then shot from unranked to No. 12 in the next edition of the rankings, before promptly exiting just one week later after a defeat in the SEC opener to Kentucky in The Swamp.

The unofficial No. 27 spot represents a 12-place drop from last year’s preseason rankings, where the Gators ended up No. 15. Florida then rose to No. 13 after a dismantling of Long Island University before crashing out of the top 25 altogether after a Week 2 loss to USF.

Florida looks to end within the top 25 in Sumrall’s first year as the head man of the Gators, a feat that has not been accomplished since a No. 13 ranking fueled by an 8-4 record under Dan Mullen in 2020. The Gators aim to return to such prominence in 2026, with their campaign starting at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium against FAU on Sept. 5th.

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