Mississippi State dropped a 25-20 decision this past weekend at Alabama, the first loss in 13-games for the Bulldogs and fell from first, to fourth in the most recent Associated Press and Coaches Poll.
So the question that is hot on everyone’s plate is where do the Bulldogs now fall in the college football playoff? The Bulldogs were ranked number-one the past three weeks, but obviously that will change with the 5-point loss to Alabama.
It’s still really hard to tell the direction the playoff committee is wanting to go with their selections and truly what criteria they are using. If you look at the last few weeks you see a few trends.
It would seem you would not be penalized at a higher degree for losing on the road verses at home and losing a close game makes a difference, which you have to wonder if that was on Dan Mullen’s mind when they were trying to score a late touchdown this past Saturday.
How much will the committee really weigh on conference champions? Right now Oregon, Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State and Baylor control their own destinies to their respective championships, but TCU was ranked ahead of Baylor last week.
There are still several questions that need to be answered on how the committee ranks and positions teams, but for now we will continue to assume a lot.
Back to Mississippi State, here are what the pundits are saying.
Mark May – ESPN:
Brad Edwards – ESPN:
Danny Kanell – ESPN:
Lou Holtz – ESPN:
Here’s what cbssports.com’s Jerry Palm had to say about the selections that come out tonight at 6:00 pm on ESPN.
The College Football Playoff selection committee sent a message last week: Being undefeated doesn’s mean much.
I expect it will mean even less Tuesday night when the committee’s new Top 25 is released, in the wake of Alabama’s win over former No. 1 Mississippi State and Florida State struggling to win at Miami.
Not only am I expecting the Tide to jump the Seminoles, but I think the Bulldogs won’t drop below them. In fact, Florida State looks like it’s in danger of falling out of the top four.
I doubt the committee will leave an undefeated major-conference team out of the playoff, but I bet Seminoles fans start jumping on the panic button this week. FSU really could stand to pick up some style points these final few weeks.
This also may be the week Baylor jumps TCU. The Horned Frogs still have a little better schedule but didn’t look good in a win at Kansas. I think it’ll be tougher for the committee to leave Baylor right behind TCU in the standings given the head-to-head result, and the Arizona State loss removed that buffer.
Here is Jerry Palm’s Predictions for tonight’s college football playoff.
So what does all of this tell us? Not much, other than nobody truly knows what’s going to happen tonight. The Bulldogs could be anywhere from third to out of the top six, but if I was guessing, I would say fourth.
The Bulldogs resume is one that is still very strong and at this time, they should still be one of the top four teams in the country. We will find out tonight if the committee believes that or not.