ESPN has released its first version of the Football Power Index now that the NFL Draft early entrees have made their decisions and National Signing Day has come and gone.

With a much clearer picture of how teams are likely to stack up next fall, the FPI has a better idea what the statistical models should look like for next season.

For clarity's sake, the FPI is a metric that utilizes teams' performances over the past four seasons (with heavy emphasis on the last season), returning starters at quarterback and on offense and defense overall, whether a team's head coach returns and recruiting rankings over the past four seasons to determine a team's relative strength.

Florida checks in quite high in this year's preseason FPI, ranking No. 8 nationally.

The Gators rank reasonably highly in each of the ESPN FPI's current individual categories, as well, ranked No. 25 on offense, No. 4 on defense and No. 12 on special teams.

The FPI has only Georgia (No. 3) ahead of Florida in the SEC East and only Alabama (No. 2) and LSU (No. 4) ahead of Florida in the SEC.

How accurate has the FPI been of late?

A year ago it correctly picked Florida to be a 9-3 team once it ran statistical models of the season in late June. The Gators were ranked No. 22 in the initial FPI released in February. It wasn't perfect on its game-by-game predictions, as it didn't see Florida losing to Kentucky or Missouri or beating Mississippi State or Florida State.

Still, it's proven a pretty good barometer over the years.

For example, the FPI surprised a lot of people last year when it had Notre Dame ranked No. 5 overall; the AP Poll had the Fighting Irish at just No. 12. Notre Dame, of course, validated that ranking by going on to reach the College Football Playoff.

So it stands to reason that Florida will be a pretty good team next fall. Can the Gators also out-perform their FPI ranking and make an even bigger splash on the national scene than they did a year ago?

It won't be easy. Florida faces seven of the current FPI Top 25 teams, including three currently ranked in the Top 10. No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 LSU, No. 9 Auburn, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 19 South Carolina, No. 20 Missouri and No. 22 Florida State all appear on next year's schedule, to say nothing of opening the season with a Miami team that figures to be a stiffer test than normal to open the campaign.

Anyway, that's for you to discuss. Drop us a line with your thoughts in the comments section below.

The FPI 1.0 Top 25 for 2019

1. Clemson - 29.0

2. Alabama - 27.6

3. Georgia - 22.0

4. LSU - 21.5

5. Michigan - 21.0

6. Oklahoma - 19.3

7. Notre Dame - 18.0

8. Florida - 17.4

9. Auburn - 16.6

10. Oregon - 16.4

11. Texas A&M - 15.9

12. Penn State - 15.4

13. Ohio State - 13.8

14. Michigan State - 13.8

15. Tennessee - 13.7

16. Mississippi State - 13.8

17. Washington - 13.3

18. Utah - 12.4

19. South Carolina - 12.1

20. Missouri - 11.9

21. UCLA - 11.7

22. Florida State - 11.3

23. Wisconsin - 10.9

24. Stanford - 10.3

25. Iowa - 10.3