College football rankings: Florida Gators open in top 10 of Preseason AP Top 25 for 2020

Football

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Coming off a two successful seasons with tremendous finishes under head coach Dan Mullen, the Florida Gators will open the 2020 season the same way they did the 2019 season — No. 8 in the Preseason AP Top 25. The delayed rankings were released Monday with the AP deciding to include teams not playing in the fall semester.

Florida finished No. 6 in the final AP Top 25 of the 2019 season after going 11-2 (6-2 SEC) on the year with four straight wins to end the season and a victory in the Orange Bowl. It was the Gators’ second straight top 10 finish, and 2020 marks their second straight top 10 opening to a season.

UF was not ranked among the top 25 teams in the 2018 preseason poll and had not been a top-10 ranked team in the preseason since 2013. Now, they have accomplished that in consecutive seasons under Mullen.

Clemson will open the season as the No. 1 team in the nation for the second straight year. Ohio State checks in at No. 2 with No. 3 Alabama also receiving first-place votes. Georgia and LSU also sit ahead of Florida, making UF the fourth-highest ranked team in the SEC entering the season despite its No. 8 ranking.

Neither Florida State nor Miami are ranked. In all, there are seven ranked SEC teams, and the Gators will play four of the six others as part of their SEC-only schedule.

Preseason AP Top 25

1. Clemson (38)
2. Ohio State (21)
3. Alabama (2)
4. Georgia
5. Oklahoma
6. LSU
7. Penn State
8. Florida 
9. Oregon 
10. Notre Dame
11. Auburn
12. Wisconsin
13. Texas A&M
14. Texas
15. Oklahoma State
16. Michigan
17. USC
18. North Carolina
19. Minnesota
20. Cincinnati
21. UCF
22. Utah
23. Iowa State
24. Iowa
25. Tennessee