Florida’s No. 2 ranking is the highest in the SEC, which placed eight teams in the top 25.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The reigning SEC-Champion Florida Gators opened at No. 2 in D1Baseball’s preseason top-25 rankings, as announced by the publication on Tuesday morning.
Considered to be the most-widely accepted rankings in the sport, D1Baseball is the second major media outlet to unveil its preseason top 25 behind Perfect Game, who placed Florida at No. 4 last week.<https://floridagators.com/news/2024/1/5/baseball-florida-opens-at-no-4-in-pg-preseason-poll.aspx> Tuesday’s announcement marks a notable improvement from last season, when the Gators debuted at No. 7 in the D1baseball Top 25 and went on to make a trip to the College World Finals.
The SEC paced all conferences with eight teams included in the preseason top 25: No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Arkansas, No. 4 LSU, No. 6 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 9 Tennessee, No. 19 Alabama and No. 25 South Carolina. The Gators play six of those teams during the 2024 campaign while welcoming No. 8 Texas A&M (March 15-17), No. 25 South Carolina (April 12-14 and No. 9 Tennessee (May 2-4) to Condron Family Ballpark.
Below is a complete breakdown of D1Baseball’s preseason top 25 with Florida’s 2024 opponents in bold.
1. Wake Forest
2. FLORIDA
3. Arkansas
4. LSU
5. TCU
6. Vanderbilt
7. Oregon State
8. Texas A&M
9. Tennessee
10. Clemson
11. East Carolina
12. Duke
13. NC State
14. Virginia
15. North Carolina
16. Texas
17. UC Santa Barbara
18. Coastal Carolina
19. Alabama
20. Iowa
21. Texas Tech
22. UCLA
23. Northeastern
24. Kansas State
25. South Carolina
Outlets with preseason rankings yet to be released are Baseball America, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Florida returns 14 players from its 2023 NCAA Runner-Up squad including positional starters Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/15489>, Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/15514>, Luke Heyman<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/luke-heyman/15522>, Tyler Shelnut<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/tyler-shelnut/15515> and Ty Evans<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ty-evans/15491> in addition to returning contributors Michael Robertson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/michael-robertson/15505> and Dale Thomas<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/dale-thomas/15512>. Along with All-American Brandon Neely<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-neely/15499> and Freshman All-American Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/15513>, Caglianone slots back into a talented pitching staff that welcomes the returns of Ryan Slater<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/ryan-slater/15506>, Blake Purnell<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/blake-purnell/15502> and Fisher Jameson<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/fisher-jameson/15496>. A deep class of 22 newcomers bolsters the 2024 roster, anchored by seven transfers as the Gators look to make a repeat trip to the College World Series.
The Gators open up the 2024 season<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/schedule> with a three-game series against St. John’s spanning from Friday, Feb. 16 through Sunday, Feb. 18 at Condron Family Ballpark.
###
