Florida football opens its 2026 campaign in under two weeks as the Jon Sumrall era kicks off in Gainesville. Ahead of the season's start, USA TODAY Sports writer Paul Myerberg published his full re-rank of all 138 FBS schools.
Myerberg's previous rerank for this fall came out in April, with the Gators placed at No. 38. In his final salvo of the preseason, the Orange and Blue find themselves up two spots at No. 36 and 10th among Southeastern Conference schools.
Sumrall and Co. enter the campaign outside the top 25 of both the US LBM Coaches Poll and AP Poll, with a de facto No. 27 ranking in both. Last year in Billy Napier's final season at the helm, Florida opened the schedule ranked No. 17 in the Coaches and No. 15 in the AP polls, while Myerberg had the Gators at No. 25 in his preseason re-rank.
The SEC has eight programs among the top 25 in the re-rank, headlined by third-ranked Texas, along with Georgia (No. 6), Oklahoma (No. 7) and Alabama (No. 9) in the top 10. Ole Miss (No. 11), Texas A&M (No. 13), LSU (No. 18) and Tennessee (No. 19) round out the top 25.
Florida begins its season against FAU in the Swamp on Saturday, Sept. 5.
SEC school rankings in USA TODAY Sports' preseason rerank- Texas (No. 3)
- Georgia (No. 6)
- Oklahoma (No. 7)
- Alabama (No. 9)
- Ole Miss (No. 11)
- Texas A&M (No. 13)
- LSU (No. 18)
- Tennessee (No. 19)
- Missouri (No. 30)
- Florida (No. 36)
- Vanderbilt (No. 40)
- South Carolina (No. 51)
- Auburn (No. 63)
- Mississippi State (No. 78)
- Kentucky (No. 95)
- Arkansas (No. 97)
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Where Florida landed in USAT's preseason college football re-rank
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