Florida football was blown out by an SEC opponent for the second week in a row on Saturday — this time by the visiting South Carolina Gamecocks, who bullied the Orange and Blue on its homecoming day to the tune of a 38-19 defeat. With the loss, the Gators now teeter on the edge of ESPN's Football Power Index rankings top 25, while many of the other metrics saw significant declines as well.
The FPI measures team strength and is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance for the rest of the season; it shows how many points above or below average a team is. Each team is assigned a rating that measures its true strength on a net points scale as well as expected point margin versus an average opponent on a neutral field.
Projected results
are based on 20,000 simulations of the season using FPI and the schedule. Take a look at how Florida's numbers shake out after Week 6's results.
Where Florida football ranks in ESPN's FPI after Week 6
Florida fell 10 spots to No. 25 in ESPN's FPI rankings after the Week 6 loss, and its rating dropped by 2.6 points to 12.6. Sumrall and Co. now sit between No. 24 Louisville (12.7) and No. 26 Penn State (12.5) in the standings.
The FPI now projects the Gators to finish this fall's regular-season schedule with a 6.6-5.4 record and with an ever-so-slight 0.2% chance of winning out — down from 0.3%. Florida's chances of finishing with six wins are down from a near-certain 95.1% to a still-solid 84.5%, while the odds of winning the conference fell by 0.7% to 0.1%.
The Gators' chance of making the College Football Playoff plummeted from 14.6% to 2.6%, along with a 0.1% chance of reaching the national championship game and a 0% chance of bringing home the national title — both declines of 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively.
Football Power Index top 25 rankings after Week 6
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Miami Hurricanes
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Texas Longhorns
- Indiana Hoosiers
- LSU Tigers
- Oregon Ducks
- Utah Utes
- Texas Tech Red Raiders
- Nebraska Cornhuskers
- Tennessee Volunteers
- BYU Cougars
- Ole Miss Rebels
- Oklahoma Sooners
- Missouri Tigers
- Houston Cougars
- USC Trojans
- Northwestern Wildcats
- Texas A&M Aggies
- Wake Forest Demon Deacons
- Iowa Hawkeyes
- Louisville Cardinals
- Florida Gators
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Home loss to South Carolina has Florida free-falling in ESPN's FPI
