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Well, this is a bit of a surprise around these parts. The Ole Miss Rebels come in at No. 4 in the first ever college football playoff rankings, trailing Mississippi State, Florida State, and Auburn while leading Oregon and Alabama. This means that, if the college football regular season ended today, Ole Miss would be one of the four teams with a shot at the national championship. That's, uh, kind of a big deal.
The surprise here, to yours truly, is that the Rebels got in and either Oregon nor Alabama did not. It seems that the committee is really rewarding quality wins more than they're punishing "quality" losses. Ole Miss losing to LSU doesn't hurt as much as Oregon losing to Arizona and Alabama losing to Ole Miss because Ole Miss beat Alabama. I know, it's not perfect logic at all, but if you expect perfect logic and college football to go hand in hand then, well, you're obviously new here.
Either way, it's exciting. Here's the full College Football Playoff rankings in full.
Rank | Team | Conference | Toughest opponent left (per F/+) | If the season ended today ... |
1 | Mississippi State | SEC | Ole Miss | Sugar Bowl vs. Ole Miss |
2 | Florida State | ACC | Louisville | Rose Bowl vs. Auburn |
3 | Auburn | SEC | Ole Miss | Rose Bowl vs. Florida State |
4 | Ole Miss | SEC | Auburn | Sugar Bowl vs. Mississippi State |
5 | Oregon | Pac-12 | Stanford | New Year's bowl |
6 | Alabama | SEC | Auburn | Orange Bowl* |
7 | TCU | Big 12 | Kansas State | New Year's bowl |
8 | Michigan State | Big Ten | Ohio State | New Year's bowl |
9 | Kansas State | Big 12 | TCU | New Year's bowl |
10 | Notre Dame | Independent | Louisville | New Year's bowl |
11 | Georgia | SEC | Auburn | |
12 | Arizona | Pac-12 | Arizona State | |
13 | Baylor | Big 12 | Oklahoma | |
14 | Arizona State | Pac-12 | Notre Dame | |
15 | Nebraska | Big Ten | Wisconsin | |
16 | Ohio State | Big Ten | Michigan State | |
17 | Utah | Pac-12 | Oregon | |
18 | Oklahoma | Big 12 | Baylor | |
19 | LSU | SEC | Alabama | |
20 | West Virginia | Big 12 | TCU | |
21 | Clemson | ACC | Georgia Tech | Orange Bowl* |
22 | UCLA | Pac-12 | Stanford | |
23 | East Carolina | UCF | New Year's bowl* | |
24 | Duke | ACC | Virginia Tech | |
25 | Louisville | ACC | Florida State |