GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gators know exactly where they stand in the eyes of the College Football Playoff Committee.
The 13-member group, which includes UF Athletic Director
Scott Stricklin, released its first CFB Playoff rankings of the 2019 season on Tuesday night and Florida checks in at No. 10. Following their 24-17 loss Saturday to Georgia, the Gators fell from sixth to 10th in the AP Top 25 and from sixth to 11th in the Amway Coaches Poll.
Florida (7-2, 4-2) hosts Vanderbilt (2-6, 1-4) on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (noon, ESPN). This is the first of six CFB Playoff rankings to determine the teams that will play for the national championship.
In its sixth season, the top four teams in the final CFB Playoff rankings at the end of the regular season earn berths in the NCAA semifinals. The winners play for the national championship in New Orleans on Jan. 20 in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
While the Gators lost control of their own destiny to the SEC Championship Game by losing to Georgia, they are not completely out of the picture. Florida is the highest-ranked two-loss team in the CFB Playoff rankings.
"There's still a lot of football to be played,'' Gators head coach
Dan Mullen said Monday in anticipation of the inaugural rankings. "I'm going to bet [the rankings are] not going to stay the same all the way through, you know? So that's why you play the whole season, because there's a lot of football to be played."
Unlike in the AP Top 25, which has LSU No. 1 and Alabama No. 2, Ohio State is atop the CFB Playoff rankings. LSU is second, followed by Alabama, Penn State and defending national champion Clemson.
