Ticked at CFP Rankings for the Wrong Reasons

Oct 28, 2014; Grapevine, TX, USA; Selection committee chair Jeff Long speaks to the media after unveiling the top 25 teams in the initial college football playoff rankings at the Gaylord Texan Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The latest edition of the College Football Playoff Rankings are out, and everyone outside of the SEC is ticked off about the whole thing. At the center of this hatred is our very own Bulldogs. After sitting at the number 1 spot longer than any other school this year, Mississippi State fell to number 4 in the newest rankings after their loss to the Crimson Tide over the weekend. People should be mad, but not for the reasons that they are.

Mississippi State shouldn’t have dropped so far

Based on the logic that the Committee is using, why did they drop the Bulldogs as far as they did? A win over Mississippi State was good enough to vault Alabama from the 5 spot all the way to the top. Now, Mississippi State stands with arguably the best resume outside of Alabama, and they fall to number 4. Sure, I’m thankful the Bulldogs are still in the hunt for the final playoff spot, but if simply beating us was good enough to vault a team to number one, why is a five point loss to the number one team dropping us three spots? At most, it shouldn’t have dropped us past two or three.

The Bulldogs’ path the the Playoff got easier with the loss to Bama

This is something that people should be furious about, but I have yet to see anyone complain about. Mississippi State was basically rewarded for losing their game to Alabama this past Saturday. It’s always possible the committee could send TCU or Ohio State ahead of us, but it doesn’t appear that will be the case. Neither of those teams will have enough on their remaining schedule to surpass the Bulldogs if Mississippi State is able to win out. They just don’t. Had the Bulldogs won the game against Bama, they would have just needed to beat Vandy this weekend to clinch a spot in the SEC Championship. That would have been one more difficult game to have to play and more opportunity to get injured. Now, if they can beat Vandy and Ole Miss, they avoid playing there, and they would still get to play in New Orleans, which is what they wanted all along. Of course they still have to beat Ole Miss which will be no piece of cake, but it is far from impossible.

People are assuming that all conferences are created equal

Everyone who is complaining because Mississippi State is still in the Top 4 is making the assumption that all conferences are just as good as each other. It just isn’t true. The SEC has proven time and time again that the best football is played in that conference, more specifically in the Western Division. The teams in the SEC West have lost a combined 20 games. Of those 20 games, only three of those have been to teams outside the SEC West. LSU, Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Auburn are accumulating losses because they are playing each other. When they have stepped out of the West, they have done exactly what they are supposed to: beat those other teams up. People are now screaming from the top of their lungs about the nonconference schedule of Mississippi State. There is even a new Twitter account dedicated to bringing attention to it. Here was its first tweet.

I will let you take a guess as to what school the person who runs that account is a fan of. Here is the thing about “punishing” a school for their nonconference schedule: you don’t know how good or bad the teams you schedule will be when you actually play them.

Mississippi State was actually applauded at one time for going out on a limb and scheduling a home and home with Southern Miss when they did. I don’t remember the year the contracts were signed for this game, but I am about 90% certain that it was either 2010 or 2011. Southern was 8-5 in 2010 and 12-2 in 2011. They were an upset in the Conference USA championship game away from playing in a BCS bowl in 2011. Sure they have fallen apart since then, but there was no way Mississippi State could have predicted such a downfall. It may look like an easy slate of games, but when you play such a tough schedule in conference, why punish yourself with such difficult games in the nonconference (even though Mississippi State tried when they originally scheduled Southern Miss). According to Jeff Sagarin, the Bulldogs have the toufghest schedule. Their schedule strength is ahead of TCU (38th), Ohio State (47th), and Baylor (55th). Those are the three one loss teams sitting right behind Mississippi State. They’ve played a tougher schedule without putting difficult teams on their plate outside of the SEC slate. There is no real benefit to scheduling more difficult teams.

So be ticked all you want that Mississippi State is ranked fourth. You might have some good arguments for why you are. But Mississippi State could make the argument that they should be a spot or two higher themselves.