Kembali
Ole Miss debuted at No. 10 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings last week, but its positioning and circumstances have changed since the weekend.
The Rebels are looking to regroup following their uncompetitive, 42-7, home loss to Georgia in Week 10 and are aware that they no longer control their own postseason destiny with three regular season games to go.
The second week of the rankings is indicative of that as Ole Miss now stands at No. 19.
“Me personally, I really don’t pay any mind to (the rankings). At the end of the day, it’s college football. Anything can happen at any time," starting safety Joenel Aguero said of the CFP Poll this week. "So I think just keeping our head down and working every week — and we’re going to see the outcomes. We just gotta keep working and let it play out.”
Here are the full rankings from this week's poll.
1. Georgia
2. Utah
3. Alabama
4. UCLA
5. Notre Dame
6. Texas
7, Miami
8. Tennessee
9. Indiana
10. BYU
11. Kentucky
12. Texas Tech
13. Wake Forest
14. Houston
15. Iowa
16. Oregon
17, South Carolina
18. USC
19. Ole Miss
20. Ohio State
21. LSU
22. cMissouri
23. Arizona
24. Boise State
25. Oklahoma State
In short, no.
That said, the Rebels are not mathematically eliminated from the College Football Playoffs through nine games. Ole Miss just needs a fair amount of chaos, particularly as it pertains to Alabama, Tennessee, Texas and Kentucky plus more.
Ole Miss does have the No. 2 strength of schedule and the No. 11 strength of record, according to ESPN’s FPI, but the Rebels’ distant losses to Florida and Georgia are significantly holding them back. The first half of its loss to Texas was trending in that direction as well, but Ole Miss showed enough resilience in Austin for that game to eventually come down to the final play.
The other aspect that doesn’t help Ole Miss is its remaining slate of opponents. Oklahoma is the only team above .500 the Rebels have left on their schedule, with unfulfilling final games against Wofford (5-5) and Mississippi State (4-5) looming. It is worth mentioning that only six teams have more wins over teams above .500 than Ole Miss (four) so far this season.
Kickoff between the Rebels and Sooners in Week 11 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is set for 3:15 p.m. CT on the SEC Network. Ole Miss currently sits as a narrow 1.5-point road favorite.