Florida among most underrated teams in SEC heading into 2026 season

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Florida football kicks off its 2026 campaign next weekend as the Jon Sumrall era begins in Gainesville. Ahead of the upcoming season, CBS Sports' experts weighed in with their picks, including superlatives, predictions and final standings for the SEC.

The Gators found themselves among the most underrated teams in the conference, along with Oklahoma, LSU and Ole Miss. Tom Fornelli and Chris Hummer offer their reasoning for why the Orange and Blue might be underappreciated.

"Thirteen of the SEC's 16 teams received at least a vote in the preseason AP Top 25, with nine ranked in the top 25. Florida was not one of those teams, and while I won't argue the Gators deserved to be in the top 25, I do believe there's a very good chance this team finishes the year there.

"Jon Sumrall has been a head coach for four seasons. He's won three conference titles (across two leagues) and played for a fourth. I doubt that trend continues in the SEC, but a talented team combined with an excellent coaching staff could lead to much-improved results in a hurry."

Sumrall and Co. are working with a roster that has plenty of players who can make a difference, but Gainesville has not seen the success the Gator Nation became accustomed to in previous decades in quite a while. Florida might appear underrated on paper, but the program has a monumentally uphill battle against a stacked schedule to reach respectability once again.

SEC football predicted order of finish

Among the CBS Sports staff respondents, Fornelli is the most bullish on the Orange and Blue, picking them to finish sixth in the conference, while Hummer is the next-most optimistic with a projected finish of eighth. Chip Patterson sees the Gators finishing ninth in the SEC, John Talty has them at 10th, and Brandon Marcello, Richard Johnson and Brad Crawford all foresee an 11th-place finish.

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida among most underrated teams in SEC heading into 2026 season

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