(UAA Photo) A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: This is Tim Walton’s time of the year. Since taking over the helm of the Florida softball program in 2006, Walton has guided the Gators to 14 NCAA super regional appearances. Should the 6th-seeded Gators (51-10) dispose of 11th-seeded Texas Tech (55-6) this weekend at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium, it will earn a third straight trip to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series, the 14th overall in Walton’s Florida career. The road to the super regional was simply business as usual for the Gators, who outscored Florida A&M and Georgia Tech (twice) 25-2 in their three games of the Gainesville Regional. The Gators run-ruled FAMU 12-0 and Georgia Tech 8-0 before taking down Georgia Tech in the championship game, 5-2. The Gators have won 22 straight NCAA regional games. Since 2013 Florida has 18 run-rule wins in NCAA regional play. Keagan Rothrock (29-6) got all three wins, allowing only five hits while striking out 13 in 15 innings in the circle. She gave up one hit in Sunday’s 5-2 regional clinching win over Georgia Tech. Rothrock’s 29 wins are tops in the SEC and third nationally. Taylor Shumaker was the hitting star for the weekend, going 5-10 with two home runs and seven RBI. Shumaker has 18 homers and 59 RBI this season. Her .446 batting average is tied for the lead in the Southeastern Conference. As a team, the Gators are hitting .355 (2nd SEC, 6th nationally) with 102 home runs (2nd SEC, 7th nationally). Texas Tech reached the super regional by staging one of the most outrageous comebacks in NCAA tournament history. Down 8-0 in the bottom of the seventh to Ole Miss, the Red Raiders scored eight times to send the game to extra innings where they came away with a 10-9 win. As a team, Texas Tech ranks second nationally in batting average (.389) and third in home runs (128). Former Gator Mia Williams is hitting .435 and leads Texas Tech with 22 home runs. The Red Raiders feature the pitching duo of Kaitlyn Terry (24-1, 1.39 ERA) and Nijaree Canady (23-5, 1.43 ERA). Terry also ranks seventh nationally with a .470 batting average. Super Regional matchups No. 16 LSU (40-17) at No. 1 Alabama (52-7) Arizona State (44-16) at No. 2 Texas (45-10) Mississippi State (41-18) at No. 3 Oklahoma (51-8) No. 13 Oklahoma State (41-15) at No. 4 Nebraska (49-6) No. 12 Duke (43-15) at No. 5 Arkansas (45-11) No. 11 Texas Tech (55-6) at No. 6 FLORIDA (51-10) No. 10 Georgia (41-18) at No. 7 Tennessee (45-10) UCF (41-17-1) at No. 8 UCLA (50-8) UF BASEBALL: GATORS GO TO HOOVER AS THE NO. 5 SEED With their sweep of LSU, the Gators (37-18, 18-12 SEC) earned the No. 5 seed for the SEC Tournament which begins Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama. Florida finished off the regular season by outscoring LSU 37-20 in three games, taking the final 15-11 thanks to a 6-run ninth inning highlighted by a 2-run home run by Hayden Yost and a 3-run double by Caden McDonald. Yost hit three home runs and drove in five while Cade Kurland hit two solo homers to cap a weekend in which the Gators left the yard at Alex Box Stadium 10 times. During the weekend Ethan Surowiec went 7-14 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Surowiec has 10 homers and 57 RBI for the season. Brendan Lawson, who went 3-9 with a home run against LSU, leads Florida with 14 home runs. Liam Peterson pitched a 7-inning complete game Friday night when the Gators run-ruled LSU 11-1. Peterson gave up three hits and struck out 11. As the No. 5 seed in the SEC Tournament, the Gators get a first round bye and won’t have to play until Wednesday when they face the winner of the Kentucky-Vanderbilt first round game. Aidan King (8-2, 2.50 ERA) is the likely starter for game one with Peterson going Thursday if the Gators win. SEC Tournament schedule Tuesday 1. No. 16 Missouri (23-30, 6-24 SEC) vs. No. 9 Ole Miss (36-20, 15-15 SEC) 2. No. 13 Kentucky (31-20, 13-17 SEC) vs. No. 12 Vanderbilt (32-24, 14-16 SEC) 3. No. 15 South Carolina (22-34, 7-23 SEC) vs. No. 10 Tennessee (37-19, 15-15 SEC) 4. No. 14 LSU (29-27, 9-21 SEC) vs. No. 11 Oklahoma (32-20, 14-16 SEC) Wednesday 5. Winner game 1 vs. No. 8 Mississippi State (39-16, 16-14 SEC) 6. Winner game 2 vs. No. 5 FLORIDA (37-18, 18-12 SEC) 7. Winner game 3 vs. No. 7 Arkansas (36-19, 17-13 SEC) 8. Winner game 4 vs. No. 6 Auburn (36-18, 17-13 SEC) Thursday quarterfinals 9. Winner game 5 vs. No. 1 Georgia (43-12, 23-7 SEC) 10. Winner game 6 vs. No. 4 Alabama (37-18, 18-12 SEC) Friday quarterfinals 11. Winner game 7 vs. No. 2 Texas 12. Winner game 8 vs. No. 3 Texas A&M Saturday semifinals 13. Winner game 10 vs. winner game 9 14. Winner game 12 vs. winner game 11 Sunday championship game 15. Winner game 14 vs. winner game 13 UF TRACK AND FIELD: WOMEN WIN SEC, MEN FINISH THIRD In winning the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championship Saturday, the Florida women completed the rare triple crown – SEC championships in cross country and both indoor and outdoor track and field. It was the second triple crown in school history. Floria and Arkansas are the only SEC schools with more than one triple crown. The Florida women finished the meet with 107 points, outdistancing second place Alabama by 20.5 points. The Florida men finished third with 78 points, trailing SEC champ Arkansas (110.5) and runner-up Alabama (94.5). Aida Van Daalen won her third straight discuss gold medal, breaking her own SEC Championship record with a 218-10 throw. Van Daalen has the top seven discuss throws in the nation this year. Asia Phillips won the women’s triple jump and Gabrielle Matthews won the 100 with a blazing 10.97 time. Matthews also placed fourth in the 200 meters. This was the 20th SEC championship for Florida coach Mike Holloway, who has won eight women’s championships, four each indoor and outdoor. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: At their spring meetings, both the Big Ten and ACC have reaffirmed their support for doubling the current College Football Playoff field from 12 to 24 teams. The Big 12 and Notre Dame are both in favor of the 24-team model presented by Big Ten commissioner Tony Petiti. Three of the four power conferences and Notre Dame would equal a majority under most circumstances, but not when the 800-pound gorilla in the room is the combination of Greg Sankey, the Southeastern Conference and ESPN. Barring being struck by lightning or by a stray piece of space junk that managed to make it through the atmosphere without being disintegrated, Sankey and the SEC will stand firm at their spring meetings, which take place next week in Destin. Sankey would prefer to stay at 12 teams but is okay expanding to 16. The SEC can afford to stand its ground because it has the full force of ESPN and all the ABC/Disney networks behind them. ESPN holds the contract to broadcast the CFP through 2031 and the network prefers to stay at 12 teams but would go along with expansion to 14 or 16 teams. Figure 16 is in the works. This is a case when the strength of the SEC/ESPN alliance far outweighs a mob rule attempt by the Big Ten, proving once again that despite the big bucks Petiti negotiated with a three-network deal for media rights, the SEC still holds the power cards. Meanwhile, as the conferences bicker over the College Football Playoff, something weird is happening in Washington DC. A bipartisan bill that has been agreed to in the Senate could be announced with sweeping changes that could lead to the antitrust exemption that college sports need to institute things such as salary caps and rules enforcement. A memo was circulated last week calling for capping coaches salaries, a Group of Six playoff and protection for the NCAA from litigation. It is rare to get any kind of bipartisan legislation through the Congress these days and times but it is a beginning. Something needs to be done to get a common sense grip on college sports that seem hell bent on destroying what has made them great. Congress is usually the last thing you want involved in college sports, but the NCAA is so inept that even Congress seems like a better route to take when instituting much-needed reforms. A better idea would be to scrap the NCAA altogether with this exception – let the NCAA continue to run championship tournaments and events. That is the one thing the organization has proven it has the organization and skills necessary to do at a high level. Everything else? Completely inept. As long as college presidents, who know little about sports and business, are in charge the idea of seceding from the NCAA might be a pipe dream. Even if the presidents decide to cede control to business and sports people, it will be time consuming. Meanwhile, something needs to be done to reel in the chaos before the NCAA’s lack of vision and power leads to the destruction of college sports as we knew them. Maybe, just maybe, Congress could save college sports. Wishful thinking perhaps, but every good idea has to have a starting point. Right now, this is the best option available.

Liam Peterson celebrates a punch out (UAA Photo) A few thoughts to jump start your Saturday morning: With their 11-1 run-rule win over LSU (29-26, 9-20 SEC) Friday night in Baton Rouge, the Gators (36-18, 17-12 SEC) put themselves in prime contention to earn the double bye for next week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament in Hoover, Alabama. A Florida win and either a loss by Texas A&M (38-13, 17-11 SEC) to Mississippi State (39-15, 16-13 SEC) or Alabama (36-18, 17-12 SEC) to Ole Miss (36-19, 15-14 SEC) will move the Gators into the top four, which means no game in Hoover until Thursday. At tournament time when pitching is at a premium, the fewer the games the better. The Gators can’t control what happens to the Aggies or Crimson Tide today, but they can control matters in Baton Rouge by sweeping the Tigers at Alex Box Stadium. Friday night, the Gators jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first two innings, giving Liam Peterson all the support he needed. In going the 7-inning distance (game called after seven because the Gators had a 10-run lead), Peterson scattered three hits, walked only one and struck out 11, easily his best outing of the season. In the first inning, the Gators got an RBI double from Ethan Surowiec and an RBI ground out by Cash Strayer for a 2-0 lead. In the second, Hayden Yost’s sacrifice fly and a 2-run homer by Brendan Lawson accounted for the scoring. Florida added two in the fifth on a 2-run homer by Surowiec, then broke loose for four more in the top of the seventh on a 3-run home run by Strayer and a solo homer by Landon Stripling. Prior to Friday night, the Gators were No. 11 in the latest NCAA RPI. Florida is 14-6 against ranked opponents. It is almost a certainty that the Gators will host an NCAA regional. With a sweep over LSU and a couple of wins next week in Hoover the Gators could find themselves finishing top eight in RPI and probably a top eight seed for the NCAA tournament. GATOR SOFTBALL: ONE DOWN, GEORGIA TECH NEXT The Gators (49-10) opened play in the NCAA Gainesville Regional Friday afternoon with a 12-0 run-rule win over Florida A&M (32-21) at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The Gators will face Georgia Tech (31-27), a 2-1 winner over Texas State at 10 a.m. today with the winner advancing to the Sunday championship. Taylor Shumaker lit up FAMU pitching for three hits including her 17th home run of the season and five RBI. Jocelyn Erickson had a pair of doubles among her three hits while Ava Brown had two hits and two RBI. Florida’s 12-hit performance backed up the combined 1-hitter pitched by Keagan Rothrock (27-6), who went three hitless innings, Katelynn Oxley and Leah Stevens. Oxley gave up a harmless 1-out single to center in the fourth and Stevens gave up a walk in a hitless fifth. As the No. 6 national seed, the Gators can host a super regional if they breeze through Georgia Tech today and whoever they play Sunday. Should the Gators win, they would be paired with the winner of the Lubbock Regional where No. 11 Texas Tech and Ole Miss play today in a winner’s bracket game. SUMRALL, GATORS LAND A STUD DT Jon Sumrall continues to turn the Gators into a force to be reckoned with on the recruiting trail. Florida’s latest commitment comes from defensive lineman Cain Van Norden (6-7, 265, District Heights, MD Bishop McNamara), a 3-star recruit who chose the Gators over Georgia, Ole Miss and Maryland. Rivals ranks Van Norden as the No. 53 defensive lineman in the nation. Per Jason Higdon, the final word in Florida recruiting at 1standtenFlorida.com, the Gators are in good shape for wide receiver Elias Pearl (5-11, 185, Port Charlotte, FL), who will make his announcement Tuesday. Pearl is a fast, elusive slot receiver who had 1,680 all-purpose yards and 20 touchdowns last year as a junior. Florida will also find out Thursday if linebacker AJ Randall (6-3, 210, Raleigh, NC Garner) is going to be a Gator. He’s down to Florida, Miami, Georgia, Ohio State, South Carolina and North Carolina State. TRACK AND FIELD: BOTH UF MEN AND WON 2ND AT SEC Heading into today’s finals at the Southeastern Conference Track and Field Championships in Auburn, the Gators are in second place on both the men’s and women’s side. With 13 events to go, the Florida men (38 points) are just five behind Alabama. Over on the women’s side, Alabama has a commanding 62.5-32 lead over the second place Gators. Today, the Gators should pick up points in both the men’s and women’s 4X100 and 4X400 relays. The Florida men should also get points from Temosi Masiken and Jaden Lippett in the triple jump, Jarno Van Daalen in the discus, Riley Smith and Oussama Allaoui in the 1500, Justin Braun in the 400 and Miguel Pantojas in the 800. On the women’s side, points should be scored by Alida Van Daalen in the disucss, Asia Phillips in the triple jump, Claire Stegall in both the 1500 and 800, Layla Haynes in the 800, Quincy Penn in the 400, Gabrielle Matthews in both the 100 and 200, and Hilda Olemomoi and Tia Wilson in the 5000. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Let’s start with the obvious. Lane Kiffin is an outstanding football coach who, given LSU’s resources, is almost certain to win and win big. He can take LSU to the places Brian Kelly only dreamed of going. There is a flip side to Lane, one that makes friends and foe alike cringe. He is prone to say outrageous things that have everyone shaking their head and asking what was the necessity of the commentary? Consider him the mouth that roared. Lane’s latest escapade has successfully pissed off half the state of Mississippi and perhaps 90 percent of the people who live in Oxford. By claiming the racial past made recruiting difficult when he was the Ole Miss coach, Kiffin revived memories of 1962 when James Meredith became the first African-American student at the formerly segregated school. It took 31,000 Federal troops to put down the 1962 riots at Ole Miss and protect Meredith who received countless death threats. During the 64 years since Meredith, Ole Miss and the entire state of Mississippi have made great strides in bandaging deep wounds, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise that Kiffin’s comments touched a sore spot in the minds of many. Ole Miss faithful are asking whatever did we do to deserve Lane Kiffin going scorched earth on us? Did we mistreat him while he was here? No. Did we give him everything he asked for and then some? Hell yes! Already perceived as a villain by Ole Miss fans for the way he bolted for the LSU job after an 11-1 regular season with the Rebels making the College Football Playoff, Kiffin has succeeded in turning an already intense LSU-Ole Miss rivalry into a tinder box. Kiffin might need bodyguards when LSU visits Ole Miss on September 19. That game will be must see TV for the entire country. Now, Lane has issued an apology but the words have a hollow ring to them. He has a history of saying things and then trying to express remorse, which lends to the perception that he’s still the spoiled brat who walked out on Tennessee for Southern Cal after one year on the job in Knoxville. This is the chance any school takes when it hires Lane Kiffin. You have to be willing to consider a tradeoff because with the wins on the football field come Lane being Lane, which is to say there is no telling what will emerge from his mouth. LSU fans and admin haven’t been trying to blanket this latest Kiffin outburst. If anything, after enduring four years of Brian Kelly doing a fake southern accent and never fitting in with the culture of the state of Louisiana, LSU fans think Lane Kiffin is a breath of fresh air. LSU knew what it was getting when it hired Kiffin, just as Florida would have known what it was getting if it had won the battle for his head coaching services. Like it or not, Lane is going to be Lane which means you take the wins with the words. When LSU became Kiffin’s runaway bride destination, Scott Stricklin and Florida pivoted to Jon Sumrall. Like Kiffin, Sumrall wins as three league championships in four years attest. Like Kiffin, he also talks. A lot. Unlike Kiffin, Sumrall sticks with positives and leaves the negativity to others. Sumrall seems too busy building up Florida to worry about the woulda, coulda and shouldas of other places. Some might look at Lane’s most recent outburst and think Florida dodged a bullet by hiring Sumrall. Perhaps a better way to look at it is this: LSU got what it wanted and Florida found the coach who is the right fit. The Gators are going to get the wins without the provocative words from a mouth from which you never know what will emerge.

Kevin O'Sullivan has the Gators in contention to host an NCAA regional (Photo by Chris Spears) It’s the final weekend of the 2026 college baseball regular season and the 19th ranked Florida Gators (34-18, 15-12 SEC) travel to the Bayou to face archrival LSU (29-24, 9-18 SEC) beginning Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. EST. LSU is having its worst season in years and will have to win the SEC tournament next week just to make the NCAA tournament. The Gators, fresh off a series win versus Kentucky, could lock in a spot as regional host if they win the series in Baton Rouge. Fun Away from Home The Gators have proven time and time again this season that winning on the road, especially in tough environments, is not a problem. In four road series versus ranked teams, the Gators have gone 10-2 and have not lost any of those series. Despite LSU not being as good in 2026, Alex Box Stadium will still be loud and raucous but that shouldn’t affect the boys in Orange & Blue too much. Their 11-5 road record and one series loss on the road shows this group can win anywhere, which bodes well for postseason play. Aidan King’s breakout season The sophomore from Jacksonville has turned into a bonafide ace and currently sits as the frontrunner for SEC Pitcher of the Year. In 13 starts/74 innings, King sports a 2.19 ERA (second in the SEC), 0.89 WHIP (SEC leader) and .187 batting average against, which would be the lowest by a Gator since Nick Maronde in 2016. King came into the season as the #2 starter behind Liam Peterson but has surpassed his teammate and become the Friday night starter at the beginning of SEC play. King may not have the 100-mph fastball and massive strikeout numbers, but he is a pure pitcher who knows how to work the zone and force bad contact. The Rise of Mac-tani Continues Caden McDonald continues to impress at the plate and on the mound after notching two hits, a go-ahead home run and 4 1/3 shutout innings (with six strikeouts) in Sunday’s win versus Kentucky. His performance landed him on Baseball America’s National Team of the Week as the two-way player for the third time in 2026. McDonald is hitting .400 with nine extra-base hits and 14 RBI across 10 games in the starting lineup. As mentioned in last week’s preview, head coach Kevin O’Sullivan has a knack for finding unknown/underused players late in the season and McDonald has become that player over the past few weeks. Key Pieces Returning at the Perfect Time An important variable to a team’s postseason hopes is the overall health of the team and the Gators got two key reinforcements last weekend with freshman outfielder Cash Strayer returning from a fractured hand and sophomore pitcher Jackson Barberi coming back from a lower-body injury. Strayer started two of the three games versus Kentucky and managed to go 3-for-6 to raise his batting average to .283 in 92 at bats. Barberi, a high leverage arm out of the bullpen, did not pitch versus Kentucky but was available. For the season, Barberi has a 2.00 ERA, .143 batting average against and 40 strikeouts in 27 innings. Strayer’s return makes the lineup a little longer and allows for more defensive versatility. It cannot be understated how important it is to have Barberi back in the fold for the pitching staff. Barberi has the stamina to pitch multiple innings in high leverage situations and take the pressure off of younger arms such as Joshua Whritenour and McDonald. Postseason implications As said earlier, the Gators have a good chance to host a regional in the NCAA tournament but will need to win at least two of three in Baton Rouge and maybe one more in the SEC tournament. The Gators are currently projected to be the #6 seed in the SEC tournament, which would give them a first-round bye. As for the NCAA tournament, Baseball America projects the Gators to be #8 national seed and would be hosting Oklahoma State, North Carolina State and Florida Gulf Coast. LSU Names to Keep an Eye on Despite the poor record and postseason hopes, the Tigers have a dangerous lineup that plays well in their home park. Future MLB first round pick Derek Curiel leads the charge with a .346 batting average, six home runs, 44 runs batted in and 13 stolen bases. Other standout Tiger bats include Steven Milam (.288, 7 HR, 39 RBI), Cade Arrambide (.323, 16 HR, 46 RBI) and Jake Brown (.309, 16 HR, 49 RBI, 10 stolen bases). Pitching has been the Achilles heel for the Tigers as they carry a 5.49 team ERA into the final series. It’s expected that LSU will throw William Schmidt (5-4, 4.22 ERA, 64 innings, 85 Ks) on Thursday versus King and follow up with Casan Evans (2-3, 5.96 ERA, 54 innings, 79 Ks) on Friday versus Liam Peterson. Saturday will be a bit of a mystery until an announcement is made but the Gators will be starting Russell Sandefer (3-2, 4.30 ERA, 46 innings, 50 Ks). Odds and Ends First pitch on Thursday/Friday is slated for 7:30 p.m. and Saturday will be at 3 p.m., all three games will be broadcast on SECN+. The Gators took two out of three in their last trip to Baton Rouge (2024) and O’Sullivan is 26-22 all-time versus the Tigers.

(Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: In his first scrimmage Wednesday at the NBA Draft Combine, Rueben Chinyelu scored 13 points on 5-8 shooting from the field while grabbing five rebounds. It was a strong showing for Chinyelu, who is both physically imposing and ever so intriguing. Strong enough to move him easily into the first round and high enough that he would forego the money to return to the University of Florida? That remains to be seen. Here are Rueben’s physical measurables: Height (shoes off): 6-9.25 Weight: 256 Max vertical: 33 inches Standing reach: 9.35 (5th) Wingspan: 7-7.5 (1st) Hand length: 10 inches (1st) Hand width: 10.25 inches (7th) ¾ Court sprint: 3.25 seconds Cameron Boozer (Duke), Yaxel Lendenborg (Michigan), Aday Mara (Michigan), Jayden Quaintance (Kentucky) and Tarris Reed Jr. (UConn) are all rated higher than Chinyelu but in most of the physical measurables, Rueben has the advantage. Where these guys have the advantage is a good jump shot (Boozer hit 19-25 on midrange jumpers yesterday) or a straight line drive like Lendenborg. Mara is 7-3 but he can load up and knock down 3-pointers. There is no questioning Rueben’s quickness and length. If this were the NBA of ten years ago when there was such a thing as a post up game, Rueben would be on everybody’s top 20 in their mock drafts, but the game has evolved into jump shots and putting the ball on the deck to drive to the rack. In both those areas, Rueben’s game needs work. For all his strength, Chinyelu doesn’t have a consistent power move to the rack with awesome dunk finishes. Instead, when he gets an offensive rebound he uses a little flip shot that is fairly effective in the college game, but gets swatted away in today’s NBA. While he is a better than average free throw shooter, he doesn’t have an effective jump shot in the 10 to 12-foot range, so everything is concentrated from three feet on in. Adam Finkelstein of CBS Sports has Chinyelu going No. 25 to the Los Angeles Lakers in his most recent mock draft that has six centers (11. Mara; 16. Quaintance; 17. Morez Johnson, Michigan; 23. Henri Veesar, North Carolina); 24. Flory Bidunga, Kansas; and Chinyelu) and nine power forwards (3. Boozer; 4. Caleb Wilson, North Carolina; 10. Nate Ament, Tennessee; 12. Lendenborg; 14. Koa Peat, Arizona; 15. Hannes Steinbach, Washington; 20. Karim Lopez, New Zealand Breakers; 22. Chris Cenac, Houston; and 29. Allen Graves, Santa Clara). Finkelstein is the only mock draft from a reasonably credible source that has Chinyelu going in the first round. Now that could change if Rueben dominates the scrimmages and a team with a rebounding deficiency is willing to take a chance on a player whose offensive skills are a work in progress. More likely, however, is that Rueben will hover around the first 10 picks of the second round. What that tells us is he would be smarter to come back to Florida for his senior season. He will make more money at Florida than he would as a late first or second rounder. At Florida he will have a chance to continue working on his offensive game to develop more power on the inside and extend his shooting range out to 10-12 feet. GATORS CRACK TOP 25 AT CBS SPORTS Now that spring football practice is a thing of the past at all 138 Division I football schools, Chip Patterson of CBS Sports ranked then first to worst. In somewhat of a surprise, the Florida Gators moved up 36 spots to crack the top 25. Here is what Patterson had to say about the Gators: “Another new coach bump, this time for a Florida team that has gotten the most out of its early months with Jon Sumrall. The Gators were able to retain key pieces from Billy Napier's 2025 squad while also adding some transfer portal talent to fill the gaps for a roster that stands, talent-wise, toe-to-toe with most SEC teams. Last season's four-win campaign fell way short of that team's ceiling, while this No. 25 starting point might be a little bit low for what Sumrall and the new regime can accomplish in Year 1.” The top 25 (SEC teams bold face): 1. Ohio State; 2. Texas; 3. Oregon; 4. Notre Dame; 5. Georgia; 6. Indiana; 7. Miami; 8. Texas A&M; 9. Texas Tech; 10. Oklahoma; 11. Alabama; 12. Ole Miss; 13. LSU; 14. Southern California; 15. BYU; 16. Michigan; 17. Tennessee; 18. Penn State; 19. Washington; 20. SMU; 21. Missouri; 22. Utah; 23. Iowa; 24. Louisville; 25. FLORIDA Where the rest of the SEC stands in the CBS 138: 31. Vanderbilt; 32. South Carolina; 36. Auburn; 57. Mississippi State; 58. Kentucky; 62. Arkansas State of Florida in the CBS 138: 7. Miami; 25. FLORIDA; 47. Florida State; 65. UCF; 72. South Florida; 103. Florida Atlantic; 117. Florida International FLORIDA RECRUITING: SUMRALL ADDS A CORNER A couple of days ago, Jon Sumrall landed junior college corner Javier Jones (6-1, 187, Phoenix, AZ/Independence, KS, Independence Community College). He chose the Gators after a visit to Gainesville on the heels of a visit to LSU in Baton Rouge. Jason Higdon, hands down the best when it comes to Florida football recruiting, thinks Jones was added to provide immediate depth to a position that has only nine scholarship corners. Jones will enroll in class next week and will be immediately eligible for the 2026 season. Here are Florida’s 2027 high school recruits: QB (1): Davin Davidson (6-6, 215, Sarasota, FL Cardinal Mooney) RB (1): Andrew Beard (5-9, 197, Bogart, GA Prince Avenue Christian) WR (2): Tramond Collins (6-0, 190, Cottondale, FL); Anthony Jennings (5-11, 170, Fort Lauderdale, FL Dillard) TE (2): Jackson Ballinger (6-4, 225, Centerburg, OH); Tommy Douglas (6-5, 235, Princeton, NJ The Hun School) OL (3): Maxwell Hiller (6-6, 305, Coatsville, PA); Peyton Miller (6-5, 290, Anna, TX); Elijah Hutcheson (6-6, 280, Roanoke, VA North Cross) DT (2): De’Voun Kendrick (6-4, 300, Tampa, FL Carollwood Day); Stive-Bentley Keumajoy Yondul (6-3, 300, Coral Gables, FL) CB (2): Amare Nugent (5-11, 180, Plantation, FL American Heritage); Aamaury Fountain (6-3, 182, Warner Robins, GA Northside) S (1): Kalib Dillard (6-2, 175, Tulsa, OK Jenks) Watch list: OT Layton von Brandt (6-7, 285, Middletown, DE Appoquinimink); DE Frederick Ards (6-5, 220, Orlando, FL, Jones); DT Jalen Brewster (6-3, 302, Cedar Hill, TX, Texas Tech commit); WR Amare Patterson (6-1, 189, Bluffton, SC); RB Tre Martin (5-10, 202, Winnsboro, LA Franklin Parish); WR Elias Pearl (5-10, 180, Port Charlotte, FL) ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Greg Sankey and the Southeastern Conference are outnumbered. The Atlantic Coast Conference has joined the Big Ten, Big 12, Notre Dame and American Football Coaches bandwagon, calling for expansion of the College Football Playoff to 24 teams. Of course, the ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame support expanding. Last year, ACC champ Duke didn’t make the playoff while Miami made it as an at-large team with the No. 10 seed. The Big 12’s only team was Texas Tech and Notre Dame was left out despite 10 consecutive wins. At the heart of the 24-team proposal, which is the brainchild of Big Ten commissioner Tony Petiti, is each of the four power conferences get four automatic bids. Also there would be elimination of conference championship games. Had there been a 24-team playoff last year, the ACC would have gotten in Duke (8-5), Miami (13-3), Virginia (11-3) and SMU (9-4). The Big 12 would have gotten in Texas Tech (12-2), BYU (12-2), Utah (11-2) and Houston (10-3). The Big Ten got three in (Indiana 16-0; Ohio State 12-2 and Oregon 13-2). The fourth team would have been either Southern California (9-4) or Michigan (9-4). Five SEC teams made it (Georgia 12-2; Ole Miss 13-2; Texas A&M 11-2; Alabama 11-4; and Oklahoma 10-3). Not every coach in the ACC thinks the playoff should double in size. On “This Is Football” Miami’s Mario Cristobal said, “I think that’s just a lot. Like, why play a regular season then? And I’m certainly not for automatic bids. ‘Hey, this conference gets’ — like, why? It’s not a beauty pageant. Okay, it’s not a beauty contest. It’s competition. Go win, go win on the field. The guys that deserve it get in and figure it out from there.” ACC commissioner Little Jimmy Phillips says expanding the playoff would give “hope to all teams.” Phillips ignores the reality that even with the 12-team playoff there are only a handful capable of going through the grind of the playoff and emerging as national champion. Meanwhile, Greg Sankey and the SEC have dug in their heels. They prefer to stick with 12 teams but if expansion is necessary then 16 is their max. The SEC Championship Game is non-negotiable because it is a cash cow for the league. And, the SEC has an exclusive long term media rights agreement with ESPN, which just so happens to have the contract to broadcast the playoff in its entirety. In the end, bet the farm that Sankey, the SEC and ESPN are going to stand their ground. Even Phillips sees ESPN as the ultimate obstacle. "ESPN has been pretty clear with all of us that they'd like it to stay at 12, maybe 14, but no higher than 16," Phillips said. So, unless something drastically unexpected happens that causes Sankey and ESPN to reverse course, Phillips and all the others calling for 24 teams are going to seem like Don Quixote charging up a hill to attack a windmill. There will be expansion to 16 teams, but 24? Nope. This isn’t soccer where everybody gets a participation trophy so that no one sheds tears of envy.

Denzel Aberdeen may have gotten help from an unexpected source in his quest for a waiver (Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: With the NCAA likely to exclude grandfathering in players who have already completed four years of eligibility when it enacts the 5-for-5 legislation, the Florida Gators and Denzel Aberdeen got a boost in their quest to get Aberdeen his fifth year. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, gave an eligibility waiver to Franck Kepnang, a 6-11, 225-pound big man originally from Cameroon, who transferred to Kentucky last week. Kepnang, it turns out, began his collegiate career at Oregon where he spent two years before playing four years at Washington. He has never averaged double figures but he meets Kentucky’s priorities – he’s tall and he’s breathing. Big deal that he will be playing his seventh season, right? The NCAA made its decision based on Kepnang’s history of injuries. He has played in 17 or fewer games in four of his six seasons. Last year at Washington he played in 25 of the team’s 33 games. Meanwhile, there is Aberdeen, who spent three years playing for the Gators before he transferred to Kentucky where he averaged 13.5 points per game last season for the Wildcats. He transferred back to Florida and has petitioned the NCAA for a waiver that will allow him a fifth year of eligibility. As a freshman at Florida, Aberdeen played in 12 games, a total of 36 minutes. Nine of those minutes were in the Gators’ NIT loss to UCF. That is the basis for the waiver petition. Compared to Kepnang, this should be a slam dunk yes decision by the NCAA, but, as we all know there is nothing simple about NCAA decisions. Most of them make little to no sense. Aberdeen should get the waiver, but if he does not he can always take the route of the state courts. It certainly worked for Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who spent four years in Division II at Ferris State (Michigan) before transferring to Ole Miss last year. There were at least a couple of years at Ferris State when he hardly played but when he petitioned the NCAA his waiver request was denied. So, Chambliss went to a local court in Oxford and a judge ruled him eligible. The NCAA appealed and the case went all the way up the chain to the Mississippi Supreme Court, which ruled favorably for Chambliss. Rather than try to take the matter up in Federal Court, the NCAA has dropped the matter completely. Chambliss will be playing QB for Ole Miss this fall. The NCAA could rule in Aberdeen’s favor, that’s for certain, but if they don’t there are dozens of lawyers ready to take the case to the courts. Based on what we’ve seen from the NCAA in court cases through the years, Denzel would almost certainly become eligible, especially with precedents like the cases of Kepnang and Chambliss, not to mention the fact the NCAA is going to implement five years of eligibility starting with the 2026-27 athletic year. Players who are already on rosters but haven't had a fifth year will be grandfathered in but those who are seniors? It's very hard to imagine that standing up to a test in the courts. Prediction: Denzel will be playing for the Gators next season. SARK: “WE’VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT ACADEMICS” As college athletics continue to spiral out of control, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian laments the lack of guardrails that have turned control of sports to boosters and networks. Adding to the misery is the matter of rules. Sports are treading on new ground every single day and there are no rules to keep up. And, where there are rules in place there is no enforcement. Tampering is rampant. Dabo Swinney of Clemson had a transfer from California in class when Ole Miss offered him seven figures. The player transferred. Swinney has proof. Then there is the transfer portal which has players going from school-to-school, selling themselves to the highest bidder. Players who come from abject poverty suddenly have generational wealth at their disposal with absolutely zero knowledge of how to handle money. Everywhere the dream of making it to the NFL is sold, but Sark points out the folly of this pitch. “It’s like we’ve forgotten about academics, yet less than 5-percent of these guys will play in the NFL,”Sarkisian told USA Today columnist Matt Hayes. When it comes to transfers, Texas has rather strict academic rules but far too many schools have rather loose standards. “At Texas, we will only take 50-percent of a player’s academic credit hours,” Sarkisian told Hayes. “You may be a semester from graduating, but you’re going all the way back to 50-percent if you play here and want a degree. But at Ole Miss, they can take you. All you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree.” In the same interview, Sarkisian also took a shot at those pushing for the College Football Playoff to expand from 12 to 24 teams. “I’d go back to a four-team playoff, and have your own conference playoff to get the four teams if you want more inventory for your television partners,” Sarkisian said. “We have to think outside the box. Just adding teams and going to 24, that’s a very spastic view, thinking that’s going to solve the problem. Forever in college athletics, we don’t think about the unintended consequences of decisions we make. It’s all knee-jerk reactions. Look where it has gotten us.” Indeed. ONE FINL PITHY THOUGHT: This is called tapping the brakes and the one doing the tapping is Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey. The Big Ten (plus eight), led by its commissioner Tony Petiti, and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) are pushing for expansion of the College Football Playoff from the current 12 teams to 24. Sankey likes the current 12-team playoff but if there is to be expansion, he will concede four more teams for a 16-team model. Not only has the AFCA endorsed expanding the playoff to 16 teams, but so have Notre Dame, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big 12. Well, of course they would. More teams in a playoff means it’s tougher for college presidents to fire a head coach that got his team into the 24-team field. Notre Dame was snubbed last year. The ACC champ was Duke, but only Miami made the playoff. Only one Big 12 team got in. The Big Ten, meanwhile, had three teams and the SEC five. Included in the Big Ten proposal are an earlier start to the season, elimination of one of the bye weeks during the regular season and the elimination of conference championship games. Sankey, easily the single most powerful man in all of college sports, says uh-uh. His reasons are simple and fair: (1) Expanding to 24 teams would seriously diminish the importance of the regular season since it is inevitable that teams with four losses would make the playoff; (2) It is a violent game so two bye weeks are a necessity to lessen the wear and tear on athletes’ bodies in a 12-game season that also includes the possibility of playing three or four more playoff games; and (3) the SEC Championship Game is a cash cow that is under contract with ESPN/ABC/Disney through 2034 with a two-year option to extend through 2036. What Sankey hasn’t said, but needs to be pointed out is the fact that there are only a handful of teams capable of running the playoff gauntlet and emerging as a national champ no matter how many teams are involved in the playoff. An 8-team playoff would accommodate the championship quality teams. Beyond the eight real contenders there are only pretenders. Sankey has the leverage here. With his deal with ESPN, which broadcasts the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff, he can afford to stand his ground. His contract with the ESPN family of networks is rock solid. On the surface it may seem the SEC is outnumbered by those backing the Big Ten proposal, but in reality, the SEC and Big Ten are the two that will make the decision about how many teams are in the playoff. Nobody else. The Big Ten may have produced the last three national champions, but since 2000, the league has hoisted the championship trophy five times – Ohio State (2001, 2014, 2024), Michigan 2023 and Indiana 2025. During the same time frame the SEC has 15 national champs – Alabama 6, Florida 3, LSU 3, Georgia 2 and Auburn 1. Serious advantage SEC. A decision on playoff expansion has to be made by December 1. Right now, the SEC and the Big Ten are like two ships passing in the night a thousand miles apart. The closer it gets to December 1 the more likely it is that either Petiti or Sankey will cave. If you’re a gambler, put your money on Sankey. He knows there can’t be a true national championship playoff without the Southeastern Conference.

There are skeptics as well there should be. Jon Sumrall has the entire Gator Nation on its feet and paying attention for a news flash that another highly regarded recruit has committed to play for the Gators. When it comes to recruiting these are the most exciting times since Will Muschamp put together back-to-back classes that were ranked No. 3 nationally. Recruiting is the lifeblood of all college football programs and Florida’s recruiting has fallen into an abyss, which has plenty to do with four losing seasons in the last five years. From 1980-2010, the Gators never had a losing season. Florida won more football games (210) from 1990-2010 than any school in the country. There were eight SEC championships and three national titles. That was then. This is now and now the Gators are that woulda, coulda, shoulda program as in woulda won more games, coulda won more games and shoulda won more games if only. If only. I remember like it was yesterday the drive up to Folkston, Georgia early one summer morning in the early 1960s. I was with my insurance agent grandfather whose commercial, home owners and auto insurance business was stretched over a territory that extended from South Georgia to the Polk County line and everything in between. C. Carle Van Sickle used those day trips to talk everything from his love of the Florida Gators to things more serious such as life its own self. On this particular morning he said the two most dangerous words in the English language are “if only.” If only means you’re living with regrets. If only means you could have done more with what you had to work with. If only means you didn’t work hard enough to erase the doubts by getting the job done. If only means you didn't do your best and instead offered excuses why you screwed up. C. Carle Van Sickle is the first person from whom I heard the phrase “if a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his butt every time he jumped.” A few years after hearing that for the first time in my grandfather’s car, my biology teacher in McComb, Mississippi used it when a classmate offered up the time honored “the cat peed on my homework” excuse. The phrase has stuck with me for more than 60 years. Looking back on the last 15 years of Florida football, there have been far too many if only moments. The Gators are on their fifth football coach since Jeremy Foley plucked Muschamp away from Texas, handing him the reins of a monster program even though he had never been a head coach before. This was the second time Foley defied conventional wisdom by hiring someone who had never been a head coach before. Ron Zook was the first and that lasted all of three years. Zooker’s unenviable task was to keep the Gators winning at the same rate as the 12 previous seasons when Steve Spurrier won 127 games, six SEC titles and the 1996 national championship. We know how that worked out. Zooker won, just didn’t win enough and he was fired. In four seasons Muschamp won, but not enough and he committed the cardinal sin of losing to Georgia Southern in a game where the then D1AA Eagles didn’t throw a pass in the second half. The Georgia Southern debacle was in 2013, the year Florida’s streak of 33 non-losing seasons came to an end. Injuries didn’t help Muschamp’s cause. He was down to Skyler Mornhinweg at quarterback by season’s end. Of course, you wonder if Tom Brady could have salvaged an offense coordinated by Brent Peas. Peas, if you recall, was the successor to Charlie Weis, who brought with him the horrendous O-line coach Frank Verducci. In some respects it was déjà vu all over again as the late, great Yogi Berra might have described it. It wasn’t until Zooker was in year three that he promoted Larry Fedora to offensive coordinator and demoted Ed Zaunbrecher, the master of the 2-inch pass. It wasn’t until year four that Muschamp dumped Peas for Kurt Roper. The Florida offense was good in 2004, Zooker’s last year, and in 2014, Muschamp’s, but in both instances it was too late. Both Zook and Muschamp were lights out recruiters, but recruiting involves more than bringing in high school kids to develop into future starters. It also involves recruiting competent assistant coaches. Zook didn’t want Zaunbrecher. Muschamp didn’t want Weis. Neither was given a choice in the matter. Lots of if only moments, too many to count, describe both Zook and Muschamp’s years on the job. The biggest if only is what might have happened if Foley had hired an experienced head coach to follow Spurrier and Urban Meyer? That's something we can only guess. Since Muschamp, the Gators have run through Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and Billy Napier. McElwain lied his way out of a job, but it didn’t help that his offenses were anemic and his recruiting left plenty to be desired. Muschamp left him with an NFL defense, but when everybody graduated and defensive coordinator Geoff Collins left for a head coaching job, McElwain couldn’t cope. The man who tried to act like he was the cool kid from high school who never wore socks and drove a Mustang convertible was exposed. He couldn’t give a straight answer to a simple question when he was winning. When things unraveled in 2017 he came up with a whopper of a fib and got fired as a result. It didn’t help matters that McElwain’s offensive coordinator was Doug Nussmeier all three years and his co-defensive coordinators in 2017 were Randy Shannon and Chris Rumph. Mullen gave us offense and three straight New Year’s Six Bowl games. He was hired by Scott Stricklin but only after Stricklin was used and abused by Chip Kelly. Kelly parlayed Florida’s contract offer into the UCLA job, which is the one he wanted. Mullen was the emergency choice and it paid off until the lack of recruiting and bad choices for assistant coaches caught up with him. One bad year and he got the boot, leaving behind a ton of if only moments such as if only Mullen had cut defensive coordinator Todd Grantham loose before his sell-by date expired. Grantham has a history of a couple of good years and then everybody figures out his blitz schemes. Napier came along highly regarded but too arrogant to hand the play calling over to an offensive coordinator. He believed football games can be won with a team of boy scouts. Having a few boy scouts is a necessity, but to win, especially in a league like the Southeastern Conference, it takes a handful of boy scouts and a majority of borderline psychopaths. This is a violent game and it takes people who enjoy the violence to win battles in the trenches. It’s great if your center is a cerebral but extremely capable type like Jake Slaughter, but you better surround him with people who live on the psychopathic edge. And, your defensive line better be manned by mean, nasty people. That is how you win in the Southeastern Conference. Napier didn’t see things that way and was shown the door with $20 million in buyout money to comfort him. Napier failed for the same reasons Muschamp, McElwain and Mullen failed before him – bad choices. We are known by the choices we make. We make good choices and good things happen. Bad choices and if we are an SEC head football coach we get buyout money but we leave behind a legacy of if only moments. Now it’s up to Jon Sumrall to learn from the past mistakes of the previous four coaches. So far he says all the right things, does all the right things, and judging by the results on the recruiting trail, he has hired a staff of top notch assistants. But he still hasn’t coached or won a game at Florida. Because of the issues with the previous four coaches, it is only natural that there are skeptics who point out the past rather than jump on the Sumrall train. We look at the past and see way too many junctures in which a right decision could have changed the direction in which Florida football has been heading since 2011. If only. That is the story of Florida football since 2011. None of the four coaches prior to Sumrall came to Florida expecting to be sent packing before their contract expired, but all four have had a hand in plunging Florida from the ranks of greatness to a level of mediocrity not seen since the Bob Woodruff years in the 1950s. Now it is up to Jon Sumrall to rescue the program before it assumes the identity of a catfish and dwells among the bottom feeders of the Southeastern Conference. It is a monumental task but Sumrall has a championship pedigree as a head coach that lends credence to the optimism that is surging through the Gator Nation. He’s been a head coach four years at two different whistlestops and he’s won three conference titles and played for a fourth. He expects to win here, not in four years but immediately and from what we’ve seen so far, there will be no if only excuses along the way. If Jon Sumrall were a frog, he would find a way to grow wings.

A few thoughts to jump start your Saturday morning: Jon Sumrall struck again Friday when 4-star running back Andrew Beard (5-9, 195, Bogart, GA, Prince Avenue Christian) committed to Florida, choosing the Gators over Clemson, Georgia and Tennessee. The No. 8 running back in the country, Beard is Florida’s 14th commitment overall. Florida is the hottest team in the country on the recruiting trail these days. Jason Higdon, whose 1standtenFlorida site is the best and final word when it comes to Florida recruiting, has 4-star defensive lineman Cain Van Norden (6-7, 270, District Heights, MD Bishop McNamara) and defensive lineman Devarrick Woods (6-3, 294), a Texas State transfer, on his watch list. The Gators’ 2027 recruiting class is currently ranked No. 6 at both 247Sports and On3. SEC SOFTBAL: GATORS FALL TO ALABAMA IN SEMIFINALS Florida was run-ruled by Alabama, 9-1, Friday evening in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Softball Tournament in Lexington. Florida coach Tim Walton rested ace Keagon Rothrock, going with Leah Stevens, Olivia Miller and Katelynn Oxley in the circle. The Gators (48-10) are a top ten ranked team but more importantly, they are No. 4 in RPI. It is likely Florida will get a top eight seed when the NCAA announces its tournament pairings, which means Florida will host a regional and super regional. Four Gators were named first team All-SEC: Rothrock, center fielder Taylor Shumaker, catcher/first baseman Jocelyn Erickson and left fielder Townsen Thomas. Selected to the second team were shortstop Kenleigh Cahalan and right fielder Cassidy McClellan. Second baseman Gabi Comia was named to the All-Defensive team. FLORIDA BASEBALL: GATORS RALLY PAST KENTUCKY, 7-6 The situation looked grim heading into the bottom of the eighth inning Friday night at Condron Family Ballpark. Trailing Kentucky 6-1, the Gators (33-17, 14-11 SEC) rallied for five runs to tie the game at 6-6, then walked off with the win in the ninth when Kyle Jones hit a bases-loaded single. In the eighth, Caden led off with a double, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout by Karson Bowen. One out later the Gators were down to their last strike when Cade Kurland reached on a third strike wild pitch. That was followed by a Hayden Yost single to right and a walk to Jones. Brendan Lawson then cleared the bases with a double to cut the deficit to 6-5 and advanced to third on an error by the left fielder. A wild pitch sent Lawson home with the tying run. In the bottom of the ninth, Bowen delivered a 1-out double in the right center gap. One out later, Kurland was walked intentionally. Pinch-hitter Jacob Kendall walked to load the bases, bringing Jones to the plate. On an 0-1 pitch, Jones singled to left completing Florida’s near-miracle comeback win. The 21st-ranked Gators face Kentucky today at 4 p.m. with Liam Peterson scheduled to start. Florida is currently in a 3-way tie for sixth in the SEC standings with Alabama and Arkansas. The Gators are a half-game behind Mississippi State and a full game ahead of Ole Miss. PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE MAKES RECOMMENDATIONS Per Ross Dellenger, probably the best in the country at unearthing scoops that pertain to college football, the presidential committees on college sports have come up with a series of ideas to reform not just football, but all collegiate sports. Among the ideas: (1) A new governing body; (2) a salary cap on both coaches and administrators; (3) reigning in NIL by preventing salary cap (for athletes) circumvention; (4) strict transfer guidelines; (5) a Group of Six playoff; (6) pooling TV rights; and (7) regionalizing Olympic sports. There are some good ideas here, the best of which is to come up with a new governing body. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, is well past its sell-by date and should be put out to pasture. Let the NCAA do what it does well, which is organize and run tournaments, but put commissioners in charge of each sport with common sense rules that apply to their sports. Start with football which needs to be completely out of the governance of the NCAA. Put business people and people who actually know football in charge rather than NCAA bureaucrats and college presidents. To get salary caps, it’s going to take an anti-trust act from Congress. It’s a great idea, but is it possible to get Congress to agree on anything these days and times? Giving the Group of Six their own playoff is a rather good idea. Cinderella stories are nice, but donkeys will probably fly before a team from a non-power conference wins the national championship in football. Let Group of Six teams play a couple of games per year against power conference opponents for the payouts, negotiate with the networks so Group of Six games are readily accessible to the viewing public, and give them a playoff deal that will bring in far more money than going to bowls in places like Shreveport and Mobile. Can it be done? Yes. Will it be done? If you’re skeptical, take a number and stand in line. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Let’s get straight to the point here and not waste anyone’s time. Behind the obvious argument that expanding the College Football Playoff from 12 to 24 teams can potentially bring in more money, there is another driving force. Expansion takes the pressure off college administrators. For the same reason that it is difficult to fire a coach who had a winning season and got his team to a bowl game – even if it means if you lose you have to spend another week in Shreveport – it will be more difficult to fire a coach who got his team into the playoff. Take Alabama, for instance. Alabama got smoked by Georgia in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game in Atlanta, the third loss of the season for the Crimson Tide. After the first year of Nick Saban’s glorious tenure, Alabama had only one three-loss season (2010). From 2011-2023, Saban lost only 18 games and won five national championships. Saban’s successor, Kalen DeBoer went 9-4 in 2024 so when Bama was sitting at 10-3 following the Georgia embarrassment, Tide fans were stacking firewood so they could burn DeBoer at the stake, but a funny thing happened on Selection Sunday. Despite three losses, Bama made the College Football Playoff. The Tide beat Oklahoma in a first round game, then got obliterated by eventual national champ Indiana in the second round, making this the second straight year DeBoer had lost four games. Eight losses in two years. Nick only lost eight in his last five seasons combined. But DeBoer made the playoff. Bama fans would have been borderline apoplectic if not for the bailout by the CFP Committee. There is also the case of LSU, which fired Brian Kelly eight games into the 2025 season. After taking a third loss in his last four games, Kelly was forced out by LSU boosters willing to pay buyout money through the nose (in excess of $50 million). LSU was 5-3 at the time and with three SEC losses, completely out of the running for a trip to Atlanta that could have salvaged another non-playoff season for Kelly. Brian Kelly won 29 games the previous three seasons, but he lost 11 despite two years with the best college football quarterback (Jayden Daniels) since the Heisman campaigns of Cam Newton (Auburn, 2010) and Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M, 2012). Kelly didn’t make the playoff, therefore, from LSU administration and fan base perspective, he had to go. Kalen DeBoer was saved by the playoff. Brian Kelly was axed because he didn’t make it. The current 12-team playoff format makes it very difficult for a team with three losses to get in. That Alabama got in while Notre Dame (10-2) and BYU (11-2) remains a contentious issue, one that would have been solved with playoff expansion. Now, expanding from 12 to 16 teams makes more sense than going to 24. Do you really think there are 12 more teams capable of winning the national championship? Are there four? That doesn’t matter a hoot in hell to the AFCA. The way they see it, 12 more teams in the playoff means 12 more coaches off the hot seat. Make the playoff and you stay in the good graces of the administration and boosters who put up the money. That is the bottom line and it is the reality in which we live.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: Is there a hotter brand on the recruiting trail right now than the Florida Gators? In the past month, Jon Sumrall has taken the Gators from never never land in the recruiting rankings to No. 6 at both 247Sports and On3. Of Florida’s 13 commitments, 10 have pledged to Florida since April 8 when 5-star guard Maxwell Hiller announced for the Gators. Sumrall and offensive line coach Phil Trautwein are putting together the foundation for what is potentially the best line the Gators have recruited in years with Hiller, center Peyton Miller and tackle Elijah Hutcheson. Trautwein has the Gators in a good position to land 4-star O-linemen Reed Ramsier (6-4, 290, Orlando, FL The First Academy), Terrance Smith (6-6, 290, Lansdale, PA, Lansdale Catholic) and Jordan Agbanoma (6-3, 315, Loganville, GA Grayson). Kennedee Jackson (6-6, 301, Lithonia, GA) seems to be trending Florida’s way. Tomorrow, 4-star running back Andrew Beard (5-9, 195, Bogart, GA, Prince Avenue Christian) is expected to choose the Gators over Clemson and Georgia. As a junior, Beard ran for 1,260 yards (8.1 per carry) and 12 touchdowns while catching 29 passes for 435 yards and five more scores. Florida has a very realistic chance to flip 5-star defensive tackle Jaylen Brewster (6-3, 300, Cedar Hill, TX), a Texas Tech commitment who is widely considered the No. 1 high school recruit in the country. The Florida brand is very hot right now and if Sumrall and the Gators deliver wins in the fall, the Gators could be absolutely scorching on signing day in December. A top five finish is entirely possible. The Gators haven’t had a recruiting class ranked that high since Will Muschamp did it back-to-back with his 2012 and 2013 classes. The 2027 commitments: OG Maxwell Hiller (6-6, 305, Coatesville, PA): A 5-star recruit, Hiller is considered the No. 1 guard prospect in the country. He chose the Gators over Penn State, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, Notre Dame, LSU and Miami among others. Chalk this one up for Florida OL coach Phil Trautwein, formerly of Penn State. Younger brother Colton is a 5-star basketball recruit for 2028/ OT Elijah Hutcheson (6-6, 275, Roanoke, VA North Cross School): A 4-star recruit and the No. 7 offensive tackle in the country, Hutcheson had offers from Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana, Oregon and Clemson among others. Another Phil Trautwein win. QB Davin Davidson (6-6, 215, Sarasota, FL Cardinal Mooney): Serious arm talent, Davidson is a 4-star recruit and the No. 9 ranked quarterback for 2027 by On3. As a junior led Cardinal Mooney to the Florida 2A championship while throwing for 23 touchdowns. His extensive offer sheet included Georgia, Miami, Notre Dame, Auburn, Florida State, Duke and Illinois. WR Tramond Collins (6-2, 183, Cottondale, FL): Collins is a serious deep threat who averaged 30 yards a catch and 21.3 per rush. He’s a sprinter on the track team who runs both the 100 and 200. Collins is a 4-star recruit and the No. 8 wide receiver in the country per 247Sports. His offer list included Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Tennessee, Miami, Florida State and LSU. C Peyton Miller (6-5, 290, Anna, TX): Considered the No. 8 interior line prospect by 247Sports and the top center in the country, Miller is a 4-star recruit cut in the Jake Slaughter mould. His offer list included Texas, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Clemson, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Florida State, Missouri, Ole Miss and Penn State. CB Aaumaury Fountain (6-3, 182, Warner Robins, GA Northside): Rivals ranks Fountain as the No. 4 corner prospect in the country. He is a former quarterback who shows natural instincts from his days on the offensive side of the football. He had offers from Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Michigan, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Clemson. CB Amare Nugent (5-11, 180, Plantation, FL American Heritage): Nugent is a 4-star recruit that 247Sports ranks as the No. 15 corner in the country. His offer list included Miami, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Indiana and Florida State. WR Anthony Jennings (5-11, 160, Fort Lauderdale, FL Dillard): He has gamebreaking speed. Career numbers are 55 catches for 1,389 yards and19 touchdowns. He is a 4-star prospect and the No. 44 wide receiver in the country. He had an extensive offer sheet that included Miami, Georgia, LSU, Auburn, Indiana, Auburn, Ole Miss, Florida State and Missouri. TE Jackson Ballinger (6-5, 230, Centerburg, OH): Ballinger is a 4-star recruit and the No. 24 tight end in the country per On3. He chose the Gators over offers from Ole Miss, Indiana, Missouri, Auburn, Washington, Louisville, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin. DL Stive-Bentley Keumajou Yondui (6-3, 295, Coral Gables, FL): Moved to Miami from England in 2025, he plays basketball as well as football. He is a 3-star prospect, the No. 37 defensive lineman in the country per 247Sports. Great feet. He had offers from Georgia, Texas, Miami, Auburn, Texas A&M, Louisville and Nebraska. S Kailib Dillard (6-2, 175, Tulsa, OK Jenks): Dillard is a standout on both sides of the ball. As a receiver he caught 71 passes for 1,250 yards and 15 touchdowns as a junior. As a safety he picked off five passes. Florida recruited him as a safety where he will need to put on some muscle but has real ball hawking skills. He’s a 3-star and the No. 44 ranked safety in the country per On3. He chose Florida over Miami, Georgia, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Penn State. TE Tommy Douglas (6-5, 235, Princeton, NJ The Hun School): A very mobile tight end/H-Back type who averaged 19.4 yards per catch last season. He is a 4-star recruit and the No. 17 tight end in the country per 247Sports. He had offers from Alabama, Southern Cal, Auburn, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, Auburn, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Miami. DL De’Voun Kendrick (6-4, 300, Tampa, FL Carrollwood Day): Kendrick projects as a nose tackle who can command a double team in the middle. He uses his wrestling skills to fight off blockers and make plays. He is a 3-star and the No. 80 defensive lineman in the country by On3. His offer sheet included Louisville, Nebraska, Auburn, Kansas State and Georgia Tech. 2026 transfer from JU TE Jaylen Jordon (6-8, 240, SR, from Jacksonville University): He played four years of college basketball at Georgia Southwestern, Flagler and Jacksonville University, but has a year of eligibility since he didn’t play football. He caught the attention of Sumrall when he participated in Florida’s Pro Day as a tight end. He’s trying to follow in the steps of Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates and Jimmy Graham, who played college basketball before playing tight end in the NFL. MEANWHILE, KENTUCKY FLOPS AGAIN IN BASKETBALL RECRUITING While Todd Golden has wrapped up his 2026-27 roster with the international additions of Arturas Butajevas (6-10, 220, from Lithuania) and Domen Petrovic (6-9, 220, from Slovenia), Kentucky continues to strike out. Last week the Wildcats lost the nation’s No. 1 high school recruit (Tyran Stokes) to Kansas and international big man Sayton Keita to North Carolina. A day ago, the Wildcats were beaten to the punch by LSU for Marcio Santos, a 23-year-old Brazilian playing in Israel. As if things aren’t bad on the recruiting front, Malachi Moreno’s draft stock is rising rapidly. The 7-1, 250-pounder will show what he’s got at the NBA combine in Chicago May 10-17. He’s a fringe first rounder whose skills and age (18) are likely to move him up to somewhere in the mid-20s on draft expectations. If Moreno stays in the draft, Kentucky will have lost 10 players off its roster to graduation, the NBA and the transfer portal. Four scholarship players return, there is one freshman incoming, an international big guy and four portal additions, only one of which is a genuine stud. The Wildcats also have a coach (Mark Pope) who has lost 26 games in two seasons with a distinct possibility of double digit losses for a third straight season for 2026-27. Kentucky fans have already taken notice that Billy Donovan is a free agent. They also know that the Orlando Magic have an opening. Apoplexy will hit pandemic proportions in the Big Blue Nation if Billy says yes once the Magic make a formal offer, which is all but assured. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Not to be outdone by the NCAA, which will expand the basketball tournament from 68 to 76 teams, the College Football Playoff will also expand. The question is expand by four to 16 teams or double up to 24? The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) has endorsed 24 teams but that is no guarantee that the CFP will go for it, nor is it a guarantee that the networks will agree to it. There is also no guarantee that the Southeastern Conference will go along with the 24-team model. It is well known that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been at odds with Big Ten commish Tony Petiti over expansion plans. Sankey prefers 16 teams while Petiti has been at the forefront of the 24-team model. It isn’t just the number of teams in the playoff that has Sankey digging in his heels. High on Sankey’s list of objections is the elimination of the conference championship games, which is part of the 24-team proposal. The SEC Championship Game in Atlanta is a cash cow for the league. It was the first conference championship game (began in 1992) and it is by far the most watched and most important. But, there is more. Writes Matt Hayes, the national college football writer for the USA Today network, “Want to know why the SEC isn’t moving off a 16-team playoff? Because a 24-team playoff is the first big step to the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences consolidating and sharing media rights. “And that’s just not going to happen. The SEC will blow up college football ― the whole smash ― before sharing its billions and prime television windows on the biggest network in college sports with everyone else.” Here is where Sankey has true leverage. He’s got a media rights deal with ESPN that’s good until the end of the 2033-24 athletic year. Guess who owns the SEC Network and has the rights to the College Football Playoff through 2032? The Big Ten, meanwhile, will be entering the second of its 3-year conglomerate media deal with Fox, CBS, NBC and others. The playoff is going to expand, no doubt about it, but unless a falling moon rock breaks through the atmosphere and hits Sankey on the head causing him to reverse course, the SEC isn’t going to go all in with a 24-team playoff. Sankey holds all the cards here and he’s got a media deal with the most powerful network in all of college sports to back him up.

Things were looking bleak following a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in the opener on Friday Following a wire-to-wire run-rule victory over the North Florida Ospreys (26-21) on Tuesday night, the Gator baseball team (32-17, 13-11 SEC) will get a few days off before welcoming the Kentucky Wildcats (29-16, 11-13 SEC) for an important three-game series that begins Friday (6:30 p.m.) at Condron Family Ballpark. After taking out two of three at Oklahoma last weekend, the Kentucky series carries weight as the Gators could lock in as a national seed/regional host if they win their last two SEC series against the Wildcats and LSU. Speaking of that series win at Oklahoma, things were looking bleak following a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in the opener on Friday, but the bats came alive Saturday & Sunday, including a historic seven- home run effort from the bats in Sunday’s 13-2 win. The seven long balls were a season high and a program record for an SEC matchup. The last time the Gators hit seven home runs in a game came versus Stetson on 4/23/24. Gators making noise against their best opponents The Gators sit in a tie for sixth in the SEC standings at 13-11 but the most impressive part of their season to date is the nation’s best 14-6 record against ranked opponents. The boys of summer (technically spring in college) have the most Quad 1 wins in the country (15) and have only lost one ranked road series all season, which includes winning all three games versus Florida State (#14), sweeping Arkansas (#17) and taking two of three at Georgia (#5). Beating good teams consistently and winning on the road are two hallmarks of a good baseball team that have the grit and tenacity to win in the postseason. New Faces are Stepping Up Down the Stretch Finding a reliable Sunday starter in college baseball is about as hard as finding bigfoot but for the first time since National Runner-up 2023 team, the Gators seem to have found themselves a third legitimate starting pitcher to toe the rubber. Sophomore Aidan King has comfortably stepped into the Friday night or ace role while Liam Peterson (formerly the Friday night starter) has put in solid work as the Saturday guy. The first few series of the season saw Cooper Walls as the Sunday starter but since conference play has begun, junior right-hander Russell Sandefer (transferred in from UCF in the offseason) has impressed coaches and fans with his bulldog-like mentality. Sandefer went seven innings on Sunday versus Oklahoma, allowing one earned run, one walk and striking out seven. If Sandefer can be continue to improve/develop, a lot of teams will have a hard time beating the Gators in the postseason facing King, Peterson and Sandefer. Following in the footsteps of the program’s all-time home run leader Jac Caglianone, redshirt sophomore Caden McDonald has burst onto the scene with his best Cags impressions. In Saturday’s 10-5 win at Oklahoma, McDonald had four hits (two doubles and two home runs), six runs batted in and threw three scoreless innings (four strikeouts). The Tampa native collected two more hits and a run scored on Sunday. In 37 at-bats for the season, McDonald has an astounding 1.209 OPS combined with four home runs and 13 runs batted in. Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan has a knack for finding a sleeper late in the season that becomes a star during the stretch run and McDonald has the look of that guy in 2026. Familiar Foe Back in Town The Gators and Wildcats did not play in 2025 due to the addition of Texas/Oklahoma. The last time these two teams played was in 2024 (in Gainesville) and Kentucky two of three with both of their wins coming in extra innings. The Gators lead the all-time series 151-74-1, including an 80-32 advantage in Gainesville. Despite a middling record, Kentucky is a dangerous team that is fighting to keep their postseason hopes alive and are coming off a series win versus Tennessee. A few names to keep an eye on their roster include center fielder Jayce Tharnish (.360 average, 33 RBIs, 25 stolen bases), second baseman Luke Lawrence (.335 average, 31 RBIs, 15 stolen bases) and first baseman Ethan Hindle (.295 average, 10 home runs, 45 RBIs, 13 stolen bases). Based off recent games, Kentucky will most likely throw Ben Cleaver (2 wins, 3.72 ERA, 36 innings, 38 Ks) on Friday night, Jaxon Jelkin (7 wins, 3.77 ERA, 71 innings, 80 Ks) on Saturday and Connor Mattison on Sunday. It has not been announced but the Gators will most likely continue with King (7 wins, 1.73 ERA, 67 innings, 71 Ks) on Friday, Peterson (59 innings, 81 Ks) on Saturday and Sandefer (3.61 ERA, 42 innings and 48 Ks) on Sunday. First pitch for Friday is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. eastern, Saturday is set for 4 p.m. and Sunday at Noon.

So when Florida stumbles, it is never just a stumble. It feels like a betrayal of natural law. The Gators are not Vanderbilt trying to find a miracle or Mississippi State trying to win uphill. Florida is Florida. That does not guarantee championships, but it does mean the excuses have expiration dates. There is an old story that still walks around Gainesville wearing a houndstooth hat. Bear Bryant, the most feared football man of his time, reportedly looked toward Florida in the 1970s and saw what too many Gator people had not yet learned to see for themselves: A sleeping giant. One account says Bryant warned, “Don’t poke that alligator. It’s asleep. You won’t like them when they wake up.” Florida’s own history department has repeated the broader idea, noting Bryant once said Florida was “a sleeping giant” waiting for the right coach. What Bryant saw was not a football program. Not yet. He saw geography. He saw speed. He saw a state filling up with families, highways, airports, high school stadium lights and boys who could run like the wind off the Gulf. He saw an institution sitting in the middle of fertile recruiting ground with no natural reason to be ordinary. And that was the maddening thing about Florida football for so long. It was not poor. It was not hidden. It was not without passion. It simply had not decided, fully and permanently, what it wanted to become. Then, eventually, the alligator opened one eye. Although warned, the Gator had been poked. There was Ray Graves, who gave Florida respectability. There was Charley Pell, who brought muscle and belief. There was Galen Hall, who had the Gators close enough to smell the orange blossoms. Then came Steve Spurrier, visor cocked, tongue sharpened, offense humming, and suddenly the sleeping giant was not sleeping at all. It was standing in the middle of the SEC, talking trash, throwing touchdowns and making Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn and everybody else deal with a new reality. Florida was not just a good job anymore. It was a monster job. Then Urban Meyer came and proved the giant could win in the modern age, too. Not just conference titles. National titles. He proved that when Florida has the right coach, the right quarterback, the right staff and the right swagger, it does not have to apologize to anybody in college football. That is the burden of Bear Bryant’s prophecy. Once somebody that smart says you are a giant, ordinary no longer gets graded on a curve. Florida fans understand this better than anybody. They are not spoiled because they remember the mountaintop. They are restless because they know the mountain is still there. The stadium is still there. The brand is still there. The recruiting base is still there. The Gator logo still means something when it walks into a living room. The ghosts are still there, too, and they do not whisper. They bark. They sound like Spurrier asking why anybody would punt from midfield. They sound like Jack Youngblood playing on one leg. They sound like Emmitt Smith running through bad intentions. They sound like Tim Tebow promising that nobody would work harder. They sound like Mick Hubert losing his voice somewhere between “Oh my!” and forever. So when Florida stumbles, it is never just a stumble. It feels like a betrayal of natural law. The Gators are not Vanderbilt trying to find a miracle or Mississippi State trying to win uphill. Florida is Florida. That does not guarantee championships, but it does mean the excuses have expiration dates. Bear Bryant understood that. He knew giants do not stay asleep because they lack talent. They stay asleep because leadership, timing and alignment have not yet arrived at the same front door. That is the challenge in Gainesville now and always. The modern game has changed. The transfer portal spins like a carnival ride. NIL has turned recruiting into Wall Street with shoulder pads. Patience is shorter than a third-and-one quarterback sneak. The old program-building manual has coffee stains, missing pages and a few chapters that no longer apply. But some things have not changed. Players still follow belief. Fans still follow hope. Programs still rise when everybody in the building agrees on the standard. And Florida’s standard, like it or not, was set by the very men who woke the giant the first time. The question is not whether Florida can be great again. That question was answered decades ago. The question is whether Florida remembers how much power is in its own bones. Because Bryant’s warning was never really for Alabama. It was for Florida. Don’t poke that alligator. Don’t underestimate that place. Don’t assume the sleeping giant is dead just because it has been quiet. In Gainesville, history does not sit in a trophy case. It waits. It watches. It judges the present against what it knows is possible. And somewhere, maybe, Bear Bryant is still leaning against a goalpost in that eternal houndstooth, looking south and saying what he knew before the rest of the SEC wanted to admit it: Wake that thing up, and you may not like what happens next.

(UAA Photo) The Gator softball team enters the post season this Thursday in the SEC Softball Tournament in Lexington, Kentucky. They will play the first game of the day after getting one of the double byes for finishing the regular season in third place with a record of 17-7 in the conference. Their opponent will be the winner of the game on Wednesday between Texas A&M and the winner of the Tuesday game between Auburn and Missouri. The Gators dropped two of three to close out the regular season against Georgia in Athens. Uncharacteristic defensive errors helped pave the way for the Dogs to win the series. Let’s hope that the girls got that out of their system as they head into the new portion of the schedule. This tournament in the Bluegrass state isn’t the one you want to win if you can only win one, but it is an important one in the sense that winning it creates momentum moving into the NCAA regions the next weekend. This is the last year the SEC tournament will be held on a campus as it is moving to a minor league ballpark just outside of Huntsville, Alabama starting next year. The one and done format is tough to really draw fans to because of the uncertainty of arrangements, so it makes sense to have a neutral site. With the SEC office in Birmingham, it is no surprise that the location is also in Alabama. Will it be an advantage to Alabama in the tournament moving forward? Of course it will! Tennessee and Ole Miss will also have some fans within easy driving distance as well. Time will tell if proves to be a hit around the league. The Gators finished the regular season with a 47-9 record. The two losses at Georgia dropped the Gators’ RPI ranking to #5. That should be good enough for a top-8 national seed but a couple of wins in the tournament would be a boost. The Gators finished with a team batting average of .357, 97 home runs, and 434 runs scored. Taylor Shumaker led the team in batting average at .441. Jocelyn Erickson still leads the Home Run contest with 19 and continues to be on the precipice of Gator history as our radio guys continue to point out at each at bat. She also led the team with 69 RBI. Shumaker had 11 more hits than Erickson to lead the team with 82 and scored 79 times as well. The Gator pitching staff continues to center around Keagan Rothrock who finished the regular season at 26-6 with a 2.41 era. Olivia Miller lost her first game of the season on Friday to run her record to 8-1 with a 1.54 era. Rothrock threw 177.1 innings this season. For comparison, Miller is next for the staff with 59 innings. Katelyn Oxley tossed 48 innings in 19 appearances. Unless Ava Brown can make a postseason appearance in the circle after her injury, the Gators must rely on Rothrock and Miller to get the job done. The burden will fall mostly on the right arm of Rothrock to pick up wins and likely saves in games Miller starts. The run to the National Championship begins this Thursday. All the work, all the games, all the off-season training has led to these moments. For a program built for the postseason like Tim Walton’s squad, this is all that matters. Can they survive and advance each step along the way and get a chance to play for the title in the last series of the year. Time will tell.

Florida's newest addition, Domen Petrovic (UAA Photo) What happened with Todd Golden and the Florida Gators Monday should reverberate throughout the Southeastern Conference and all of Division I college basketball. By signing hybrid forward Domen Petrovic (6-9, 220) from Slovenia, a shooter who hit 40.5 percent from three for Sencur Gorenjska Druzba Kranj during the season in Europe, Golden let the rest of the world know he doesn’t have to search high and wide for a point guard to back up Boogie Fland. If there have been questions about the construction of the roster for the 2026-27 season they have been about better shooting and who will back up Boogie. Denzel Aberdeen’s transfer solves some of the point guard issues since he played point off the bench when he was with the Gators during the championship run of 2025 and played point out of necessity at Kentucky last year. But he will be a 5th-year senior this year and while he’s competent at the point for a few minutes, it’s not his full-time position. Then there is Alex Lloyd. The signing of Petrovic gave us a good clue about Lloyd’s development. Golden hinted at it when he held a press conference a couple weeks ago, the day after Tommy Haugh announced he will be returning. Lloyd played mop-up minutes off the bench as a freshman last season where he looked more like a skinny wing than a point. Apparently he’s gotten in the weight room where he needs to add about 15 pounds of muscle and in workouts he’s showing Golden that he is the point guard of the future. So problem solved at the point. Petrovic gives the Gators a hybrid forward who can play the high post, run the baseline or play out on the wing. He averaged 16.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game while playing in Slovenia during the European season. A teammate of Gator Urban Klavjar on Slovenia’s national team at the FIBA under-18 Euro championships in 2022 and under-20 Euros in 2024, Petrovic averaged 5.6 points and 3.6 rebounds in 2022 and 9.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in 2024 playing for the national team. This past season in Slovenia, he built on the 2025 season when he averaged 12.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. He shot 56 percent overall from the field, 84 percent from the foul line and nearly doubled his assist total, becoming a hot property for American schools seeking international talent. Because of Klavzar, Florida already had a file on Petrovic and had a foothold on landing him. By signing him, Golden now has the only full roster in the SEC and one of the few full rosters in the nation. No one in the country has as much size, talent and experience as Florida, particularly in the front court where Golden can call on six players, all of whom measure at 6-9 or more. “We are really excited to welcome Domen into our program,” Golden said. “He is a very skilled forward that has great positional size. He has shown incremental improvement every year, and he’s currently playing the best basketball of his young career. He is a high-achiever both on and off the court and will help us continue to raise the bar here at Florida!” There is a slight catch to Florida’s full scholarship limit and it involves Rueben Chinyelu and Aberdeen. Rueben Chinyelu declared for the NBA Draft and has been invited to the mid-May combine in Chicago. ESPN rates Chinyelu the No. 43 prospect for the June draft, which would put him in the second third of picks (11-20) in the second round. Chinyelu has kept open his option to return to Florida and people who know him well say unless he feels assured of a first round selection, he will return to Florida for his senior season. He will have to dominate at the combine while demonstrating a heretofore absent 10-foot jumper to work his way into the first round. Figure he’s back. Aberdeen has already played four years, the first three at Florida and last season at Kentucky. He played in 12 games during mop-up time as a freshman, 36 minutes total with nine coming in the NIT loss to UCF. He has petitioned the NCAA for a waiver that will allow him to play a fifth year. This is where things get slightly sticky. The NCAA Division I board has forwarded a 5-for-5 model that would not grandfather in athletes whose four years of eligibility expired in 2026. The new rule is expected to pass, which would mean Aberdeen has to go through the waiver process to play for the Gators or else take the matter to the courts. If he doesn’t get the waiver, he has a very good chance to win in the courts where the NCAA loses 95 percent of the time. In his favor is the inequality of redshirt rules for football and basketball. In football, a player can participate in four games – 1/3 of the season – and still be eligible. He can play in the bowl game as well and it won’t count. In basketball, participation in even one game can blow the redshirt. Football players have been gaining waivers for an extra year of eligibility because of the redshirt rule. Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss was denied a waiver, so he went to the local courts in Mississippi and won, first at the local level, then in the appeals and finally at the Mississippi Supreme Court. Chambliss 3, NCAA 0. He will play QB at Ole Miss this year where the Rebels will begin the 2026 season as a top ten team expected to make the College Football Playoff. So, figure Aberdeen is going to be playing for the Gators. Either he gets his waiver or beats the NCAA in court, providing the Gators with an experienced wing who can shoot, defend and won’t have to be schooled on the intricacies of Golden’s offensive and defensive schemes. Florida’s roster is absolutely loaded, which is why the Gators are No. 1 in every credible too early top 25. Even Joe Lunardi, the bracket guru for ESPN, has the Gators on his No. 1 overall seed for the 2027 NCAA Tournament. Here is a look at Florida’s roster: Big guys: Tommy Haugh (6-9, 215, SR); Alex Condon (6-11, 236, SR); Rueben Chinyelu (6-11, 265, SR); Viktor Mikic (6-11, 260, JR); Jones Lay (7-0, 230, FR); Arturas Butajevas (6-10, 220, from Lithuania); Domen Petrovic (6-9, 225, from Slovenia) Perimeter: Denzel Aberdeen (6-5, 200, 5th-year transfer from Kentucky); Urban Klavzar (6-1, 195, SR); AJ Brown (6-5, 210, RJR); Alex Kovatchev (6-5, 195, RJR); Boogie Fland (6-3, 185, JR); Isaiah Brown (6-5, 210, JR); CJ Ingram (6-7, 210, SO); Alex Lloyd (6-4, 180, SO)