On Saturday, Alabama traveled to Starkville to take on Mississippi State, and the home crowd watched their team get dominated. The Tide put up 56 points against the Bulldogs, who managed only 23. Alabama averaged nearly eight yards per play, while Mississippi State barely cleared four. The final score reflected a complete dismantling, the sort of loss that typically drops a team in the rankings.
Mississippi State dropped one spot in the AP Top 25 poll instead of staying put. The drop came after the Bulldogs were embarrassed at home. Iowa took a much harder hit, falling six spots after losing to Ohio State in Iowa City.
“Protect the SEC” looks like this in practice.
Alabama’s Roll Over Mississippi State
The Tide controlled every statistical measure of the game. They made it into the MSU red zone seven times and found the end zone each time. Their passing game averaged 12.7 yards per attempt, while their running game produced four touchdowns. Alabama also recorded eight sacks or tackles for loss, along with two deflections. Despite losing two fumbles, they still won the turnover battle by forcing four from a beleaguered Bulldogs team.
Mississippi State’s final score of 23 against Alabama’s 56 doesn’t come close to showing how badly the Bulldogs were beaten. The home team managed just 70 plays, producing a mere 302 total yards for an average of 4.3 yards per play. Alabama put up 483 yards on only 61 plays, working out to nearly eight yards per play.
Mississippi State entered the week ranked No. 16. After losing to Alabama, they dropped to No. 17. That’s a one-spot fall after a home humiliation against the nation’s seventh-ranked team.
Iowa’s Loss and Its Reward
Ohio State visited Iowa City for a game between two ranked teams, with Iowa arriving at No. 14 after winning a walk-off contest against Michigan the previous week. The Buckeyes were ranked No. 5, two positions above No. 7 Alabama, and they mostly controlled the game throughout. Iowa did not quit, however, putting up some resistance even as the result was never seriously in question.
OSU averaged 6.5 yards per play to Iowa’s 4.5, stifled Iowa’s running attack, and forced two turnovers. Jeremiah Smith was dominant, with 11 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns. The final score was 31-14, a conclusive win for Ohio State, but hardly the embarrassment of Alabama-MSU.
The Hawkeyes came into the week ranked No. 14, then fell at home to a top-5 opponent by 17 points. The Bulldogs arrived at No. 16, only to get routed 23-56 by the No. 7 team right inside their own stadium. Of the two, which one do you suppose dropped further in the rankings?
Iowa fell a hefty six places, settling at No. 20. Mississippi State dropped just one spot.
The Bigger Picture
The Gators’ defeat by Missouri now appears far more damaging than it did at the time, especially since Florida was subsequently dominated by a mediocre Missouri team. Ole Miss, which suffered a lopsided loss to Florida, refused to move from its No. 9 spot during the bye week. Missouri climbed 11 places following its win over Florida, even though its own loss to Mississippi State now seems much worse. At the same time, 5-0 Nebraska, which has dominated a schedule that’s admitted to be weak, remains unranked.
An X account tied to the Big Ten pointed out that since 2019, three Big Ten squads have opened their campaigns at 5-0 without being ranked:
- 2019 Minnesota
- 2023 Maryland
- Most recently 2026 Nebraska
Before that, the last SEC team to begin a season 5-0 and unranked was Vanderbilt in 1943.
Cody Nagle from 24/7 Sports posted that since 1995, 80 SEC teams have started 5-0. All 80 were ranked in the AP Top 25 entering their next game. Outside the SEC, 44 teams have started 5-0 and been unranked entering their next game.
The two teams sit back to back in the SP+ rankings: Mississippi State at No. 27, and Nebraska right behind it at No. 12. Yet when it comes to the AP Poll, only one of them shows up among the voters.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich posted her “rationale” for putting Kentucky at No. 17 on X, saying she has Kentucky No. 17 in her top 25. She cited the team’s fifth-place ranking in ESPN strength of record as the basis for her placement.
What Is Actually Happening Here
Pro-SEC advocates and media figures argue that the favorable treatment is warranted. The data does not back up that assertion. Large venues and packed houses tell us nothing about how good a team actually is. They tell us less than nothing. A well-known name and a commissioner who spends most of his time making incorrect arguments on ESPN do not carry any weight either. Winning “SEC road games” games regardless of the opponent does not matter either. And that is exactly what AP voters cite as their reason for ranking teams.
The AP Poll has diminished in importance with the creation of the College Football Playoff selection committee and their top-25. But the committee technically evaluates teams based on their own terms, and it’s highly unlikely they don’t use the AP Poll in some capacity, at least in their first set of rankings.
The AP Poll remains a factor in playoff discussions and similar matters, and it continues to be deployed on behalf of the SEC. Mississippi State suffered an embarrassing defeat at their home field yet kept their ranking intact. Iowa, meanwhile, dropped six positions after losing by 17.
Which one are you supposed to believe?
Source material: “Pro-SEC bias in the AP Top 25 Poll has gotten out of control, and it's impacting the college football season,” Fox News.
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