The Florida Gators have gotten a fair amount of respect for poll voters. Both the AP Top 25 (15th) and AFCA Coaches Poll (17th) have UF in their respective preseason top 25s.
Friday, Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com took shots are predicting how the 2025 season will shake out when they revealed their preseason College Football Playoff and bowl projections. It’s doubtful Gator Nation will like how they see things going. Neither has Florida making the College Football Playoff, and these are the bowl games and matchups they have for Billy Napier’s team:
AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Friday, Jan. 2
Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (Memphis, Tennessee)
4:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Kansas vs. Florida
Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Friday, Jan. 2
Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, North Carolina)
8 p.m., ESPN
Schlabach: Duke vs. Florida
Per Google, the Liberty Bowl and Duke’s Mayo Bowl do not have a specific numerical “pick order” for SEC teams in the traditional sense. “Instead, [they are] part of a pool of six SEC bowl games [ReliaQuest, Gator, Music City, Texas, Liberty, and Duke’s Mayo/Las Vegas] that make selections after the College Football Playoff and Citrus Bowl have chosen their teams. The SEC, in consultation with the bowls and the member institutions, assigns teams to these bowls based on factors such as preferences, travel considerations, potential matchups, and avoiding repetitive destinations.”
Below, are the CFP teams as picked by Bonagura and Schlabach. Each has four UF opponents projected to the CFP.
No. 1 Texas (plays UF)
No. 2 Penn State
No. 3 Ohio State
No. 4 Clemson
No. 5 Georgia (plays UF)
No. 6 Notre Dame
No. 7 Alabama
No. 8 Oregon
No. 9 LSU (plays UF)
No. 10 Arizona State
No. 11 Miami (plays UF)
No. 12 Boise State
Playoff teams for Mark Schlabach
No. 1 Texas (plays UF)
No. 2 Clemson
No. 3 Penn State
No. 4 Georgia (plays UF)
No. 5 Ohio State
No. 6 Alabama
No. 7 Notre Dame
No. 8 Oregon
No. 9 Miami (plays UF)
No. 10 LSU (plays UF)
No. 11 Arizona State
No. 12 Boise State
***
Florida was 8-5 last season, and returns several key players, notably quarterback DJ Lagway, All-American center Jake Slaughter, running back Jadan Baugh, EDGE Tyreak Sapp, end Caleb Banks and placekicker Trey Smack. Meanwhile, the Gators added key pieces via the transfer portal and recruiting. Lagway has been limited in preseason camp by a calf injury, but the hope in Gainesville is he will be at 100 percent in the near future.
“We absolutely have aspirations to be a playoff team,” Napier said two weeks ago. “That’s the intention of coming here is to win championships. Now, what do we know about that? It’s about the work we do. It’s about today. Okay. It’s not about yesterday or tomorrow. It’s about today. A good today leads to a good week, leads to a good month, leads to a good season, and you look up and count them up at the end of the year.
