Ole Miss Deserves More College Football Playoff Rankings Respect (and why it matters)

Ole Miss and the Ranking Problem

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It’s an argument I couldn’t win.

In the very strange 2020 season, Texas A&M went to Alabama and got rocked 52-24. Hardly a shocker, but the Aggies went on to roll through the rest of their schedule to finish the regular season 8-1.

It’s only crime? It had to go on the road to face the eventual national champion that tore through everything in its path, except for a fight with Florida in the SEC Championship. The Aggies beat the Gators, too.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame barely beat a Clemson team without Trevor Lawrence, wasn't even close in the 34-10 rematch loss in the ACC Championship, and yet it got the nod for the fourth spot in the College Football Playoff over Texas A&M.

There’s a glitch in the mindset of voters, judges, and people who do rankings when it comes to teams losing a game they're supposed to.

If Texas A&M had played Ole Miss in Week 2 of 2020 instead of the juggernaut No. 1 Tide team on the road, it almost certainly would’ve been 9-0.

Opponents matter.

Full disclosure, I’d love to see Missouri get a shot at a big-time game.

I have family members who live a driver/3-wood away from Faurot. Loved ones are Mizzou grads, others are currently there, and more will go there.

But wow, do all three rankings systems have this wrong.

At the moment, Missouri is the top-ranked two-loss team in both the AP and Coaches polls - one spot ahead of Penn State, and two ahead of Ole Miss.

The College Football Playoff screwed this up even worse, with Missouri 9, then-10-1 Louisville - with a dominant win over Notre Dame on the resumé - 10, Penn State 11, and Ole Miss 12.

Penn State is its own argument.

It beat Iowa - say what you will, but it’s the 10-2 Big Ten West champ - 31-0. It rolled West Virginia, and nine of its ten wins were by double-digits.

It has five relative blowout wins over teams that are off to bowls, and its only sin was losing in good, tight games against Ohio State - on the road - and to Michigan.

But it’s okay. In the end, the Nittany Lions will settle in at around 7-to-9 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, and that’s just about right.

Why does this matter? Next year, Penn State - if this happens again like this - is comfortably in the expanded College Football Playoff.

Why does it matter that Mizzou will likely finish ranked ahead of Ole Miss?

1) It means a New Year’s Six bowl - more prestige, a bigger spotlight, a better bowl - and 2) next year, the rankings process getting this wrong might mean Ole Miss is out of the expanded College Football Playoff while a Tulane team it beat by 17 on the road is probably in.

Missouri has a nice win over Kansas State - which will now looks worse with the Wildcats going 8-4 with a loss to Iowa State - it beat Tennessee with ease, got by Florida, and has a win over … uhhhhhh, ummmmmmm, yeah.

Memphis? That was close. Kentucky? Okay, but not that big a whoop. No, it's about the wins over Kansas State and Tennessee, who were 19th and 21st, respectively, in the last batch of CFP rankings.

But now the CFP has to adjust after Kansas State lost to Iowa State, and 8-4 Tennessee's loss at Florida looks awful, and the best win was over ... Kentucky?

Missouri lost at Georgia 30-21. Absolutely no problem there. But it lost at home to LSU - forget the 49-39 score; LSU got a late quirky TD that made the final number look worse - which isn’t all that bad, but …

Ole Miss beat LSU.

Ole Miss also beat Tulane on the road 37-20 for the presumptive Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six’s only defeat.

Most Rebels games have been tight fights, but they keep on winning.

Beating Georgia Tech looks better now. Beating Auburn at Auburn seems a wee bit better after the Alabama game, and the five wins over teams going bowling - and keeping Mississippi State out of a bowl with a win - is good enough coming from the SEC West.

The issue? The two losses came at Georgia and at Alabama.

Yeah, it was crushed in both games, but again, those were on the road against two teams good enough to be in the College Football Playoff.

The LSU win is the key here. Ole Miss and Missouri both played Georgia and lost. One won at home to LSU, the other lost at home to LSU.

Again, Missouri does have the blowout win over a sort-of-shouldn’t-be-ranked-but-is Tennessee, but if Tulane wins out, Ole Miss will have the technical best win between the two.

It isn't THAT big of a deal right now. A non-CFP bowl is a non-CFP bowl, and in the end, if Florida State beats Louisville for the ACC Championship, it’s almost a lock that Missouri, Ole Miss, and Penn State will all finish in the final College Football Playoff top 11.

But again, this is about the process.

Next year at this time, this situation will be a whopper of an argument for that 11th spot - with the Group of Five champ being the 12th - and the College Football Playoff committee has to show now that it has it right.