Missouri
FloridaReported Analysis · 2026 Week 5
Missouri’s Rise and Florida’s Fall Reach Every AP Voter
The Tigers gained 39 new inclusions and rose on the other 31 ballots. All 70 voters lowered Florida after Missouri’s 45–17 win.
Missouri InclusionsOf the same 70 voters
Florida Top-10 VotesAll 70 still rank the Gators
Every AP voter either raised Missouri or added it to a ballot in the October 4 poll. Every voter also lowered Florida, producing a panel-wide shift after the Tigers’ 45–17 win on October 3.
Missouri jumped from No. 25 to No. 14, while Florida fell from No. 8 to No. 16. Those aggregate moves conceal an unusually clear individual pattern: all 70 voters returned from last week, and every one changed both teams’ support in the same direction.
Missouri Turns 39 Omissions Into Votes
Only 31 voters ranked Missouri last week. All 31 moved the Tigers higher this week, and the 39 who left them out added them. Missouri went from 118 points to 755, a gain of 637, with no voter lowering it or leaving it unranked.
The new inclusions were not all marginal votes. Stephen Means added Missouri at No. 12, while Brett McMurphy added it at No. 19. Among voters who had already included the Tigers, Chris Murray moved them from 19th to 12th.
The resulting consensus concerns inclusion more than exact placement. Missouri’s votes range from eighth to 23rd, so the panel still disagrees about where the Tigers belong. It no longer disagrees about whether they belong in the Top 25.
Florida Keeps All 70 Votes but Loses Most of Its Top-10 Support
Florida’s decline was just as broad, although none of the voters dropped the Gators completely. All 70 had ranked Florida last week, all 70 ranked it again, and all 70 put it lower.
Top-10 votes fell from 64 to three. Florida lost 581 points, from 1,272 to 691, as its numbered placements spread from ninth to 25th. Its No. 16 result reflects lower positions throughout the panel, rather than a wave of omissions.
| Measure | Missouri, Week 4 | Missouri, Week 5 | Florida, Week 4 | Florida, Week 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AP Rank | 25 | 14 | 8 | 16 |
| Points | 118 | 755 | 1,272 | 691 |
| Voters Ranking the Team | 31 of 70 | 70 of 70 | 70 of 70 | 70 of 70 |
| Top-10 Votes | 0 | 3 | 64 | 3 |
The same named ballots illustrate both changes. Means moved Florida from second to 17th as he added Missouri at 12th. McMurphy lowered Florida from seventh to 11th, and Murray moved the Gators from fourth to 13th.
A Reversal of Florida’s Previous Surge
A week earlier, Florida had gone from zero top-10 votes to 64, a change examined in Poll Behavior’s Week 4 article. Nearly all of that top-10 support disappeared in the next edition, even though Florida remained on every ballot.
Missouri’s disagreement has shifted from inclusion to placement, with even its weakest current vote keeping it in the Top 25. Florida continues to appear on all 70 ballots, but most voters have withdrawn the high rankings that drove last week’s surge. For the Tigers, the debate now concerns where a universally included team belongs; for the Gators, universal inclusion now comes with far fewer high placements.
Sources & Methodology
All figures were recomputed from the complete September 27 Week 4 and October 4 Week 5 AP ballots. Both editions contain the same 70 voter identities. An addition means a previously omitted team is now ranked; it is kept separate from a higher numbered placement. AP points run from 25 for first to one for 25th. The game result is corroborated by Missouri Athletics and Florida’s box score.