College GameDay Crew Unanimous in Gators Championship Predictions
ESPN’s College GameDay crew is unanimous in their pick for the NCAA Tournament: The Florida Gators will win the national championship.
Immediately after the NCAA revealed the official bracket for its 2025 national tournament, the SEC Tournament champions quickly became one of the nation’s favorite picks to win the national championship, and the popular pregame show’s crew are buying into the hype.
Host Rece Davis alongside analysts Seth Greenberg, Jay Bilas and Jay Williams each picked the Gators to run the table and win the program’s third national championship.
Williams, a former Duke basketball player, is predicting Florida to defeat Auburn in the Final Four before downing the Blue Devils in the championship.
“This one hurts me. This one hurts,” Williams joked, noting the Gators’ guard play as his reasoning.
Meanwhile, Greenberg has the Gators defeating Michigan State in the Final Four before also defeating Duke due to Florida being “the most complete team in college basketball at this time.”
Bilas, believing Florida to be the best team in the country, and Davis both had the Gators defeating Auburn and Houston in his bracket.
Florida becoming an immediate favorite to win the national championship shouldn’t come as a surprise after a strong regular season followed by a tremendous showing in the SEC Tournament.
In Todd Golden’s third year leading the program, the Gators defeated two AP No. 1 teams in the regular season with wins over Tennessee at home and Auburn on the road. Florida also had double-digit wins against ranked opponents in Mississippi State and Texas A&M and a five-point win on the road at top-10 Alabama.
In the SEC Tournament, the Gators dominated No. 21 Missouri and No. 5 Alabama before beating Tennessee to claim its first conference title in 11 years.
“I just think we continue to prove what we have been all season, which is being one of the best teams in America, continuing to show that we can beat anybody in America,” Golden said after the conference title. “When we’re playing like this, I think we are the best team in America. We got to keep going.”
The Gators, who own the No. 1 seed in the West Region and No. 4 overall seed in the tournament, will play No. 16 Norfolk State on Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:50 p.m. with television coverage on TNT.
