Skip to main content

Why Mississippi State shouldn't be ranked #4

Remember what vaulted Mississippi State to the top of the rankings? It was their three week run in games 4, 5, and 6 of the season, where they defeated three consecutive top 10 teams in LSU, Texas A&M, and Auburn. Sure, those wins looked mighty impressive when they occurred, however, in hindsight, they don't look nearly as impressive as they did at the time. The only one of those three teams that remains ranked is Auburn, and they've dropped to #15. The three teams are now a combined 10-11 in conference play. Mississippi State's non-conference schedule consisted of games against Southern Mississippi (3-8), UAB (5-6), South Alabama (6-5), and UT-Martin (FCS, 6-6). In other words, the only current top 25 they've defeated is Auburn. The only game left on their schedule is against Ole Miss, who at one time was ranked in the top 5, has dropped to #19, and could be out of the top 25 if they lose to their in-state rival.

TCU is ranked 5th in the poll. The Horned Frogs have defeated three top 25 teams this year: #12 Kansas State, #18 Minnesota, and #20 Oklahoma.

Ohio State is ranked 6th and has defeated two top 25 teams: #10 Michigan State and #18 Minnesota.

Baylor is ranked 7th and has beaten two top 25 teams as well: #5 TCU and #20 Oklahoma, with #12 Kansas State still on the slate.

So, of these four one-loss teams, how can Mississippi State be ranked at the top? To this point in the season, they've defeated fewer top 25 teams than the other three and had a weaker non-conference schedule than both TCU and Ohio State. For as great of a story as the Bulldogs have been this year, at this current time, they're undeserving of being in the top 4, and the main reason they're ranked ahead of TCU, Ohio State, and Baylor, is the SEC bias.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Boycotting jukeboxes because of TouchTunes

I love music and enjoy hitting the bar(s) over the weekend, so naturally, when the mood strikes me, I've never been coy about playing some songs on the jukebox. This past Thursday, a friend of mine turned 50, so several friends of her's, including myself, all met up to celebrate the occasion. At around 9:30, a friend of mine and I both chipped in $5 to play some songs on the jukebox. Four hours and 231 skips later, we gave up on hearing the songs we had selected, and went home knowing we had just wasted $5. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened to me (and many others), and due to that, I'll be boycotting jukeboxes. Why? The scam known as TouchTunes. You see, here's how the plot typically breaks down. A person (or group of people) downloads the TouchTunes app on his/her phone, consumes one too many adult beverages, and due to this, has less care for spending extra money to hear the songs of their choosing right NOW. That's the thing with TouchTun...

Face guarding is legal in college football and the NFL

I just wanted to remind fans and announcers especially, that face guarding is legal in both college football and the NFL. It all comes down to contact. So long as a defender doesn't make contact with an intended receiver, he doesn't have to turn around to play the ball. I can't tell you how many times every week I hear announcers talk about face guarding being a penalty. It's not. I even heard one announcer yesterday state, "If the defender doesn't turn around and play the ball, the ref will call pass interference every time." That's simply not true. Courtesy of referee Bill LeMonnier, he says this with regard to the rule at the college level (answered on 8/12/13): "NCAA rules on pass interference require the face guarding to have contact to be a foul. No contact, no foul by NCAA rules." In the NFL rule book, this is written:  "Actions that constitute defensive pass interference include but are not limited to: (a) Contact by a ...