Florida football suffered its third loss of the 2026 campaign last Saturday — a 27-8 defeat at the hands of the program's biggest rival, the Georgia Bulldogs. Nothing seemed to go right for the Orange and Blue as the Bulldogs pounded their way to a six-straight win in the cross-border series.
Now that the dust has settled on Week 9's results, The Athletic's Chris Vannini issued his latest re-ranking of all 138 FBS schools, which saw the Gators demoted five spots to No. 23. Jon Sumrall's squad now sits between No. 22 South Carolina — who beat Florida on homecoming — and No. 24 Arizona.
Compare that with the US LBM Coaches Poll, which dropped the Gators from the top 25 to the de facto No. 27 spot, and the AP Top 25, which has them teetering on the edge
at No. 25.
Next up, Florida returns home to host Oklahoma — which ranks No. 38 in the re-rank — on Saturday, Nov. 7, inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:45 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
SEC schools in The Athletic's 138 re-rank top 25
The SEC is now back to 10 representatives in The Athletic's re-rank top 25 — up one from last week — with Georgia leading the way at No. 2, followed by Texas (No. 8) and Tennessee (No. 10) among the top 10. The remaining schools representing the conference in the top 25 are Alabama (No. 11), Kentucky (No. 12), Ole Miss (No. 13), Missouri (No. 16), LSU (No. 19), South Carolina (No. 22) and Florida (No. 23).
The Athletic's 138 re-rank top 25 after Week 9
Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida slips but remains in The Athletic re-rank top 25 after Week 9













