Florida Went From Zero Top-10 Votes to 64 in One Week

From the Edge of the Poll to the Top 10

Florida rose from No. 21 to No. 8 in the September 27 AP poll as 64 of 70 voters placed the Gators in their top 10. A week earlier, Florida’s best vote was No. 13, and 14 voters left the team out entirely.

The shift followed Florida’s 52–28 win over then-No. 4 Ole Miss. The Gators ran for 302 yards and improved to 4–0. In the next day’s poll, their lowest vote was No. 15, just two places below their highest vote the previous week.

All 69 Returning Voters Moved Toward Florida

All 55 voters who ranked Florida last week moved the Gators higher, and all 14 who left them out added them. The new voter, Sarah Hughes, put Florida seventh.

Chris Murray made the largest move among voters who ranked Florida both weeks, lifting the Gators from No. 23 to No. 4. Brett McMurphy and Pat Welter each moved them from No. 25 to No. 7.

Stephen Means went from leaving Florida out to ranking it second. That change is recorded separately from the numbered moves: an unranked team has no assigned position, so it would be misleading to treat his earlier omission as a No. 26 vote.

Most of the Gain Came From Voters Already on Board

Florida’s point total rose from 269 to 1,272, a gain of 1,003. Most of that increase came from voters who already had the Gators in their Top 25: their higher placements supplied 735 additional points.

The 14 voters who added Florida contributed 249 points, and Hughes’ seventh-place vote added 19. The larger panel explains only that last portion; the other 984 points came from changes by the same voters who submitted ballots a week earlier.

Voters still differed on how high Florida belonged, placing the Gators anywhere from second to 15th. But the question of whether Florida belonged in the Top 25 had disappeared from the submitted ballots: all 70 included it.