Gators ranked sixth in Collegiate Baseball preseason poll

The Gators are ranked sixth in Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 50 Division 1 preseason poll, which was released on Monday.

This marks the 14th consecutive season that UF has been ranked in the top-25 of Collegiate Baseball’s preseason poll. They’ve now been ranked inside the top-6 of the poll in seven of the last eight years.

The SEC leads the country with four teams in the top-10 and 10 teams in the top-50. The Gators will face six preseason top-25 teams this season: No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 3 LSU, No. 9 Mississippi State, No. 12 Florida State, No. 20 Arkansas and No. 23 Miami.

Florida returns 19 players from the 2021 squad that earned the opportunity to host a regional but went 0-2 in the postseason. Among those returnees are six offensive starters and ace pitcher Hunter Barco.

Additionally, the Gators have welcomed in a 16-player freshmen class that was ranked No. 1 in the country by Perfect Game.

UF opens the 2022 season at home against Liberty on Feb. 18.

Here is the complete Collegiate Baseball preseason top-25:

Rank Team (2021 Final Record) Points
  1. Texas (50-17) 498
  2. Vanderbilt (49-18)* 494
  3. Louisiana St. (38-25)* 491
  4. Texas Tech. (39-17) 487
  5. Stanford (39-17) 484
  6. Florida (38-22) 481
  7. Oklahoma St. (36-19-1) 480
  8. East Carolina (44-17) 476
  9. Mississippi St. (50-18)* 474
10. Notre Dame (34-13) 473
11. Georgia Tech. (31-25) 470
12. Florida St. (31-24)* 468
13. Texas Christian (41-19) 464
14. U.C. Irvine (43-18) 462
15. Louisiana Tech. (42-20) 461
16. Central Michigan (42-18) 458
17. U.C. Santa Barbara (41-20) 454
18. UCLA (37-20) 453
19. Mississippi (45-22) 451
20. Arkansas (50-13)* 448
21. Oregon (39-16) 447
22. Arizona (45-18) 445
23. Miami, Fla. (33-21)* 441
24. Virginia (36-27) 438
25. North Carolina (28-27) 435
Ethan Hughes
Ethan was born in Gainesville and has lived in the Starke, Florida, area his entire life. He played basketball for five years and knew he wanted to be a sportswriter when he was in middle school. He’s attended countless Gators athletic events since his early childhood, with baseball being his favorite sport to attend. He’s a proud 2019 graduate of the University of Florida and a 2017 graduate of Santa Fe College. He interned with the University Athletic Association’s communications department for 1 ½ years as a student and also wrote for InsideTheGators.com for two years before joining Gator Country in 2021. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can follow him on Twitter @ethanhughes97.