Where Preview Magazines Are Predicting Florida In The SEC

With the college basketball season less than two months away we’re well into preview season–and that means preview magazines.

Preview magazines that cover every team in the sport have become a tradition for many college basketball fans who can get a look at the landscape of the sport overall but more specifically–the league they’re most interested in.

These days there are three major college basketball preview magazines–Lindy’s, Blue Ribbon Sportsbook, and The Almanac. To get a feel for how these magazines feel about the Gators, we will take a look at each of their rankings for the SEC. The writers involved in these huge college basketball previews take deep dives into the leagues they are covering in order to put out the best work possible–so where they have the Gators projected will give a good indication on what the pulse is surrounding the Gators nationally.

While the projected SEC finishes will be listed, no actual writing from these publications will be shared. Some generalizations of their comments will be shared, but nothing word for word as not to diminish the hard work of the writers. If you want to support college basketball journalism and are interested, I would encourage you to consider purchasing one or more of these magazines.

First of all, we’ll look at Lindy’s. Lindy’s is one of the longest running college basketball previews and has a strong reputation. Here is their predicted SEC finish:

1. Tennessee
2. Arkansas
3. Texas A&M
4. Kentucky
5. Auburn
6. Alabama 
7. Florida
8. Mississippi State
9. Ole Miss
10. Vanderbilt
11. Georgia
12. LSU 
13. Missouri 
14. South Carolina

The writer chose to have a bit of a wait and see approach with the Gators–saying the transfer class was arguably the best in the league, but being cautious to rank them any higher because they’re unsure how the group will gel. This will be a common trend, as all three magazines made comments along these lines. Let’s next look at the Blue Ribbon Sportsbook projected SEC rankings:

1. Tennessee
2. Arkansas
3. Kentucky
4. Texas A&M
5. Alabama
6. Mississippi State
7. Missouri
8. Auburn
9. Florida
10. Ole Miss
11. LSU
12. Vanderbilt
13. Georgia
14. South Carolina

Blue Ribbon’s writer spoke of a talented transfer class, but one that lacks the high-end scoring to power the Gators in a very good SEC. This writer also factored in program momentum a little bit more than Lindy’s, with Missouri and Mississippi State being rewarded for successful first years under their new coaches while Florida was down the rankings a bit. Finishing 9th in the SEC would be a disappointment for the Gators who would likely find themselves on the NCAA Tournament bubble with a finish like that. 

Finally, here is The Almanac. The Almanac is the new kid on the block doing this for the second year in 2023, however it has already established itself as arguably the most respected. This is largely due to the fact that they talk to every coach in the country before doing their rankings, something Blue Ribbon and Lindy’s don’t have the same ability to do. This much conversation with coaches gives them a lot of insight, and they also get to hear where coaches in a given league think their standings will shake out. Additionally, The Almanac is an online-only publication, meaning that they are able to make changes right up until the day of the release (which was September 20th) allowing them to have much more up to date information than the physical magazines who have to lock in their content long before printing–a challenge more than ever with how late into the offseason changes are happening in college basketball these. For these reasons, the Almanac’s SEC projection is arguably the most interesting. Here it is:

1. Texas A&M
2. Tennessee
3. Alabama
4. Arkansas
5. Mississippi State
6. Kentucky 
7. Florida
8. Auburn
9. Missouri
10. Ole Miss
11. Vanderbilt
12. LSU 
13. Georgia 
14. South Carolina

As you can see, The Almanac projections are more of a departure than Lindy’s and Blue Ribbon’s which could be due to their intel, or the fact that they have a more up to date ranking. Whatever it is, they have the Gators finishing 7th which in a talented SEC would likely be good enough for an NCAA birth. The Almanac was extremely high on Florida’s transfer class, while also being the only publication to have an outwardly positive opinion on Todd Golden’s current coaching abilities as opposed to the other two magazines which had the “wait and see” type approach.

Overall, you can see that the Gators will enter the 2023-24 season with fairly measured expectations from a national standpoint. All three publications have the Gators in the mix for an NCAA Tournament bid, though finishing between 7th and 9th in the SEC would be far from making Florida a stone cold lock for the field. Right now it seems like people like the talent the Gators are bringing in through the portal, but they don’t want to put any expectations on the team given how last year went. 

Going into the season without lofty expectations might be just what the Gators want, though I’m sure there are plenty of people in the program that are hungry to get things back to the point where every year the Gators are expected to finish high in the SEC standings.