CBS Sports' college basketball experts unanimously believe Florida will reach the Final Four this season, though they disagree on whether the Gators will leave Indianapolis with another national championship.
All five experts included Todd Golden's team in their preseason Final Four predictions
for the 2027 NCAA Tournament, while Gary Parrish and Isaac Trotter went a step further by picking Florida to win the national title.Matt Norlander, David Cobb and Cameron Salerno each selected Duke to win the championship. Cobb and Salerno predicted that the Blue Devils would defeat Florida in the title game, while Norlander included the Gators among his other Final Four selections.
Parrish made his case for the Gators by highlighting the amount of proven
production returning from a team that won the SEC regular-season championship by three games and earned a No. 1 seed in last season's NCAA Tournament. Florida returns six of its top seven scorers from that squad.
"On paper, the Gators are the obvious pick to win the 2027 NCAA Tournament," Parrish wrote.
The Gators' frontcourt is another major reason for the optimism. Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu are all back, giving Golden one of the nation's most accomplished groups of returning players.
Haugh enters the season as the SEC coaches' preseason Player of the Year, while Chinyelu is the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. Condon rounds out a trio that Parrish considers the best combination at the three frontcourt positions in college basketball.
Florida's 2025-26 campaign ended with a second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Iowa, one year after Golden led the Gators to the 2025 national championship.
CBS Sports expects the Gators to make a much deeper postseason run this time around. Whether Florida or Duke ultimately comes out on top divided the panel, but every expert expects the Gators to be playing on college basketball's final weekend.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: All 5 CBS Sports experts pick Florida to reach Final Four
