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Ole Miss No. 4 in First College Football Playoff Rankings

If the playoff began today, the Rebels would be in.

By The Ghost of Jay Cutler
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

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