Week 0 - Florida College Football Power Rankings

With Week 0 finally here, we have Live College Football in just a few more days! Only 1 Florida Team is playing this weekend as FIU faces Louisiana on Saturday. I’m here to offer an unbiased ranking of the state of Florida college football teams. No games have been played, so this is purely speculation based off of return production from last season, the records of each program, and a little expectation for what’s to come.

No sugar coating, lets dive in!

FBS Programs in the State of Florida: 7 (Florida Gators, Florida Atlantic Owls, Florida International Panthers, Florida State Seminoles, Miami Hurricanes, South Florida Bulls, and UCF Knights)

1: Florida State Seminoles - 1st Game - LSU Tigers - 9/3 - 7:30 PM - ABC

Ranking: Associated Press - 8th, AFCA Coaches Poll - 8th

Florida State has a loaded roster for the first time in quite a few years. The Noles are coming off of a 10 win season and have a lot of production returning (8 on offense, 8 on defense, 2 on special teams), coupled with a soft schedule (on paper), so FSU is favored to finish behind Clemson atop the ACC this season. The talk as of late has been that while the Noles have improved their high school recruiting this cycle, and have been performing well in the Transfer Portal for a couple of years now, (how could you not when you’ve been under .500 for four years in a row?) their development of recruited HS players has been questionable. None-the-less, the Noles look like the team to beat in the State of Florida, and will remain so until dethroned.

2: Florida Gators - 1st Game - Utah on Aug 31 (Thu) @ 8 PM

Ranking: Associated Press - Unranked (4) votes, AFCA Coaches Poll – Unranked (63) votes

The Gators will face Utah on Aug 31 (Thu) @ 8 PM, and are likely to drop out of this spot with a loss in their opener on the road. They follow that up with a night scrimmage at home against McNeese on Sep 9 (Sat) 7:30 PM, the Gators will be facing their first conference opponent as Tennessee comes to town on Sep 16 (Sat) 7 PM. Objectively speaking, they could easily be 1-2 after this initial slate of games. Florida had a better record than Miami (by 1 win) last season, and received more votes in the AFCA poll (63), and in the AP poll (4) than Miami and for those reasons I am placing them a spot above the Canes (FOR NOW!).

3: Miami Hurricanes - 1st Game - Fri, Sep 1 vs Miami (OH) 7:00 PM ACCN

Ranking: Associated Press - Unranked (0) Votes, AFCA Coaches Poll – Unranked (16) votes

Miami hype appears to be surging amongst the media. The ACC Network and ESPN have both spotlighted Cristobal’s upgrades to the program in recent days. Although Miami left too much on the field against lesser opponents last season, this coming year seems promising. With strong recruiting and portal additions, Miami looks poised to make the leap as they addressed all of their glaring issues at WR, LB, OL, CB and added quality depth at RB. We have a decent September schedule that should see us with a winning record for the duration of the month, but until shown otherwise, sadly, we’re running behind the other “Big” programs in the state. Let’s hope for big strides from our newest additions.

4: UCF Knights - 1st Game - Thu, Aug 31 vs Kent State 7:00 PM FS1

Ranking: Associated Press - Unranked (0) Votes, AFCA Coaches Poll - Unranked (0) Votes

UCF is stepping up to a Power 5 conference for the first time, a big move for sure, and they have been recruiting well. With a number of seniors on the team, can Gus get them on the Bus, and in the right seats?

5: Florida Atlantic - 1st Game - Sat, Sep 2 vs Monmouth 6:00 PM ESPN+

Ranking: Associated Press - Unranked (0) Votes, AFCA Coaches Poll - Unranked (0) Votes

A new Conference and bigger stage. A new Coach in Tom Herman. A new era for Owls football. There is Plenty to look forward to in Boca, but on the grand scale the Owls are distant followers in the state when it comes to football.

6: South Florida - 1st Game - Sat, Sep 2 @ Western Kentucky 3:30 PM CBSSN

Ranking: Associated Press - Unranked (0) Votes, AFCA Coaches Poll - Unranked (0) Votes

The USF staff feels good about their O-Line, but they will need more than that to compete with the rest of the State of Florida and teams around the nation.

7: Florida International - Saturday, August 26, 2023 @ Louisiana Tech - 9:00 PM - CBSSN

Ranking: Associated Press - Unranked (0) Votes, AFCA Coaches Poll - Unranked (0) Votes

The first Florida based team to take the field the season will be FIU this Saturday night. Not much else to say about FIU right now... the best thing they have so far this season is Coach DVD and these sweet Miami Vice uni’s. Here’s hoping that they can mount a formidable team for the duration of the season.

AP Top 25 - Not Released

Florida State – 8th

Florida – Unranked

Miami – Unranked

UCF – Unranked

Florida Atlantic – Unranked

South Florida – Unranked

Florida International – Unranked

USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll - August 7, 2023

Florida State – 8th

Florida – Unranked

Miami – Unranked

UCF – Unranked

Florida Atlantic – Unranked

South Florida – Unranked

Florida International – Unranked

With “games being played”, we’ll revisit these standings each week over the course of the season.

Let us know your thoughts on the rankings in the comments below.