The College Football Playoff rankings have officially started, but that doesn’t take away from the AP top 25 poll, which has been putting rankings out all season. The spotlight may be off of them, but it doesn’t mean we still aren’t watching them closely. Once again, the AP top 25 poll is under criticism as they made some erratic decisions. It’s hard to vote each week when you can’t watch every game. That said, it shouldn’t cause senseless decisions being made.
Here’s every way the AP voters simply missed the mark this week.
Dropping Missouri all the way out of the rankings
Yes, Kentucky will be dropped in the next iteration of the College Football Playoff rankings, but it needs to be stated that Missouri still has a gauntlet ahead of them. If there’s any team that could be a three-loss CFP representative, it could be Missouri. Yes, they lost a home-game to Texas in Week 10, but they also have Georgia and Kentucky left to play.
If Missouri manages to win both of those games, are they just going to magically climb into the top 15 with no explanation? It’s a hypothetical, but its loss to Texas didn’t quite warrant being knocked out of the rankings altogether. The Tigers were in the game up until a late pick sealed the game.
Ole Miss still being ranked is criminal
Ole Miss isn’t a bad team, but they got whooped by Georgia over the weekend. The Rebels got beat so badly, they shouldn’t be anywhere near the rankings. They dropped from No. 12 last week to No. 19. If there’s any three-loss team we can count out of CFP contention, it’s Ole Miss. Yes, the AP top 25 poll is different from the CFP rankings, but that doesn’t negate that both ranking systems go hand-in-hand with each other. Had Ole Miss simply lost the game, that’s one thing.
They got blown out at home and didn’t look anything close to a team that deserved to share the field with Georgia. That’s not to say they’re one of the better teams this season, but at the end of the day, their best wins are LSU and Missouri, which are both hanging on by a thread in the top 25 poll.
Why is LSU still ranked?
Speaking of LSU, the Tigers shouldn’t be ranked. They have three losses, got blown out at home by Alabama and are pretty much at this point out of the CFP contention. LSU doesn’t have a ranked win this season, so why should they still be ranked? They beat Texas A&M when they were still in the top 25 — the Aggies are now fighting for bowl eligibility. LSU beat Mississippi State, but the Bulldogs were without Kamario Taylor and have since sifted back down to the depths of the SEC standings.
LSU has failed every challenge in front of them and as much as you want to feed into the whole Lane Kiffin villain arc narrative, this LSU team is underperforming what they were supposed to do this season. Every one of their losses is to a ranked team. They’ve proven they don’t deserve to be ranked.
Houston isn’t a top 15 team in the country
How is it that Houston can beat Cincinnati by seven points at home and move up three spots to No. 14? The Big 12 is already weak and the Cougars have simply been rewarded for having a weak schedule in the most recent AP top 25 poll. Houston’s best win on the year is against Oklahoma State, which was ranked No. 18 at the time — and hasn’t been ranked since that loss — and they have ranked losses to Utah and Texas Tech.
Why is this team continuing to climb up the rankings with more ranked losses than wins and a weak conference slate? I’m not saying Houston should be punished by any means, but they aren’t a top 15 team in college football.
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