The College Football Playoff Rankings were released on Tuesday night and the Florida Gators are ranked No. 11 in the country.
The college football selection committee is comprised of 13 members that vote, including Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin. The committee will release a top-25 ranking each week for
Since the process started in 2014 the first ranking has been, at best, a penciled in outline of the actual playoff teams at the end of the season. In 2014 Mississippi State, Florida State, Auburn and Ole Miss were the top four teams when the first poll was released. In the end Alabama was the lone SEC team to make it to the playoff and No. 16 Ohio State (in the first poll) soared into the playoff with a 12-1 record including a 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championship.
The following year saw LSU ranked No. 2 in the initial poll before dropping all the way to 18 by the final poll. Once again Alabama was the SEC’s lone representative.
Each year there has been a team that was not ranked inside the top four in the first poll reach the playoff. Five teams have been ranked outside the top-12.
The Gators have a great chance to get to a New Years Six Bowl, something that has become the goal for the season.
“It would mean a lot. Coach Mullen said just win out. Win the rest of your games and we could make a pretty nice bowl game. When I was at Ole Miss we went to the Sugar Bowl, and I’ve seen something on Twitter where they said we could have the possibility of going to that,” Van Jefferson said. “That was pretty fun when we went there, so if we could make a New Year’s Six bowl — and right now we’re not thinking about that, we want to win the rest of our games — but a New Year’s Six bowl would be big.”
Ahead of the Gators are several SEC teams that still have to play one another. Georgia and Kentucky will play this week and Florida could potentially jump the loser of that game. LSU and Alabama will also play this weekend. Florida’s path to a New Year’s Six Bowl game would mean winning out, as Jefferson said, but it is certainly a possibility with four games left in the 2018 season.
1. Alabama (8-0)
2. Clemson (8-0)
3. LSU (7-1)
4. Notre Dame (8-0)
5. Michigan (7-1)
6. Georgia (7-1)
7. Oklahoma (7-1)
8. Washington State (7-1)
9. Kentucky (7-1)
10. Ohio State (7-1)
11. Florida (6-2)
12. UCF (7-0)
13. West Virginia (6-1)
14. Penn State (6-2)
15. Utah (6-2)
16. Iowa (6-2)
17. Texas (6-2)
18. Mississippi State (5-3)
19. Syracuse (6-2)
20. Texas A&M (5-3)
21. N.C. State (5-2)
22. Boston College (6-2)
23. Fresno State (7-1)
24. Iowa State (4-3)
25. Virginia (6-2)