The problem with No. 7 Ole Miss being on a bye week is there’s no shiny object to distract fans and media’s attention away from something else.
But with the Rebels nearing a spot in the College Football Playoff, there’s a shiny object we can look at Tuesday night.
It’s not as shiny as an actual game, but the CFP Rankings reveal is exciting this week because there’s going to be a shakeup at the top.
No. 11 Oklahoma’s upset win against No. 4 Alabama will see the teams ranked behind the Crimson Tide move up at least one spot.
The committee hasn’t shown a willingness to move a team ahead of another in the rankings when both teams beat unranked foes, so don’t expect to see Ole Miss move up higher than No. 6.
That’s a great spot to be in knowing that one more win gets the Rebels into the playoffs.
But how the committee ranks the teams behind Ole Miss is something to pay attention to.
The Mess of Two-Loss SEC Teams, Notre Dame
The top three (Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M) are undefeated and the next four ranked teams all have one loss (Georgia, Texas Tech, Ole Miss and Oregon).
Then we get to the two-loss SEC teams, Notre Dame and a three-loss Texas team.
Alabama, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt all have two losses. So does Notre Dame and Texas just lost its third game.
Where this gets interesting is that Texas beat Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, Alabama beat Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma beat Alabama. It gets even more interesting when you throw in one-loss BYU (who lost to No. 6 Texas Tech) and Utah with two losses, too.
How the committee handles that mess of teams will matter to Ole Miss. Because should the Rebels lose the Egg Bowl to Mississippi State, they’ll be in the mix of it all. (Ole Miss beat Oklahoma, but lost Georgia who beat Alabama who lost to Oklahoma.)
For whatever it’s worth, the AP and coaches polls have the teams ranked like this: No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 10 Alabama.
We’ll get our first idea of what to expect Tuesday night when the latest rankings are revealed. As always, they’ll be revealed in a live show on ESPN, starting at 7:30 p.m.
