Ole Miss is No. 7 in the new AP Top 25 poll.
You don’t need a math degree to see where this is headed. Keep winning, and some of the teams parked above the Rebels will end up looking up at them.
The SEC is doing a lot of that work for free. Its teams spent Saturday beating up on one another, and voters had plenty to sort out Sunday.
Ole Miss stayed out of the mess by making Missouri miserable. The Tigers never got into the end zone.
That’s not the kind of game that trends on social media. Voters noticed anyway.
Meanwhile, the top of the poll fell apart. Five teams from the top eight lost Saturday, and voters had never seen that happen in a single day.
Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma all got bit
Georgia had the worst afternoon of anybody. The Bulldogs were No. 1 a week ago, then Auburn beat them at home with time nearly gone, and now they’re fifth.
Auburn isn’t ranked, by the way. The Tigers did pick up 61 points in the also-receiving-votes column.
Tennessee took care of Alabama. The Vols moved to No. 11, and the Tide is two spots behind them at No. 13.
Kentucky’s been playing good football all fall, and beating Oklahoma only helps. The Wildcats are 12th.
Oklahoma got it worse. The Sooners aren’t in the poll at all, and they aren’t among the teams getting votes either.
Then Florida went out and caught Texas napping. The Gators landed at No. 20, one spot below the Longhorns.
Missouri somehow hung on at No. 22. I’m not sure what voters saw in that box score, but good for them.
One loss isn’t the end anymore
Just two SEC schools crack the top 10 this week, Georgia and Ole Miss. The Big 12 and Big Ten have three apiece.
Fans in other leagues will love pointing that out. It doesn’t mean much.
When good teams keep beating good teams, everybody walks away with a scratch. The committee can’t punish a whole conference for that.
Georgia’s proof. The Dawgs lost at home to an unranked team and still didn’t fall out of the top five.
So one SEC loss is starting to look survivable in the playoff race. The Rebels would still rather not find out how much rope they’ve got.
They’ll get a real test right away. Texas opened as the favorite against Ole Miss in the early Week 8 lines, Florida loss and all.
The teams standing in front of the Rebs
Miami owns the top spot. Forty voters put the unbeaten Hurricanes first.
BYU is second after knocking off Notre Dame, though that win came with some drama. The Big 12 said afterward that Notre Dame should’ve gotten one more second.
The Irish are fourth, with Ohio State wedged between them and the Cougars at No. 3.
Indiana is sixth. Texas Tech handled Arizona State with ease and moved up to No. 8, right behind Ole Miss.
Georgia’s still two spots ahead, too, and the Dawgs face the same SEC grind the Rebels do. If a couple of these teams stumble, the Rebs move up without lifting a finger.
Ole Miss doesn’t have to be pretty for the next two months. It just can’t be the next team on the menu.
Full AP Top 25
- Miami (40 first-place votes)
- BYU (20)
- Ohio State (9)
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
- Indiana
- Ole Miss
- Texas Tech
- UCLA
- Utah
- Tennessee
- Kentucky
- Alabama
- Houston
- Iowa
- USC
- Wake Forest
- LSU
- Texas
- Florida
- Boise State
- Missouri
- SMU
- Northwestern
- Arizona
Also receiving votes: Oklahoma State 128, Oregon 79, Auburn 61, James Madison 52, Mississippi State 30, New Mexico 6, Oregon State 3
