Football
Head-scratcher: Apparently Vols’ win over OU bigger than Rebels’ big numbers
Ole Miss falls a notch, but SEC still holds a firm grip on the top spots in the media poll.
OXFORD, Miss. — Maybe the only redeeming thing for Ole Miss fans after seeing the latest AP poll Sunday afternoon is that’s not the goal. Rebels coach Lane Kiffin is angling for the College Football Playoff.
Tennessee welcomed Oklahoma to the SEC with a 25-15 road win and rose in the rankings for the fourth straight week. The Vols started the season ranked No. 15 then went to No. 14 after Week 1, No. 7 after Week 2 and No. 6 last week.
Tennessee was last in the top five in 2022, peaking at No. 2 on Oct. 30.
Ole Miss slipped a spot to No. 6, and No. 7 Miami, No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 Penn State all moved up one place.
The top four spots of Texas, Georgia, Ohio State and Alabama are not changed. Ole Miss was probably the odd man out because the Vols downed a ranked team. I keep reminding you, none of this means anything right now.
Take a deep breath and relax. This is a result of the Rebels’ non-conference schedule not having a lot of respect and dominating people all four weeks. They downed Georgia Southern on Saturday night, 52-13.
Trust me, Kiffin’s not paying it much attention because coaches don’t concern themselves too much with that right now. Besides, if the best Ole Miss has played is the first four games of the year then Kiffin will have other things to worry about.
Besides, the Rebels now are staring eight straight SEC games and if you have any doubt how rough that gauntlet can be, just look at the rankings this week.
The SEC had gone two straight weeks holding down six of the top seven spots in the rankings, a first for one league in poll history. No conference previously even held five of the top seven spots, which the now 16-team SEC still has this week.
With Missouri slipping, the SEC still holds five of the top six spots, and it’s on a three-week streak of owning four of the top five. That streak is another AP poll first.
The only other time in the 88-year history of the poll that a conference had four of the top five ranked teams was the SEC on Oct. 19, 2014 (No. 1 Mississippi State, No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Auburn). That lasted a week.
AP TOP 25 POLL
| Sat, Aug 31 |  | vs Furman | W, 76-0 |
| Sat, Sep 7 |  | vs Middle Tennessee | W, 52-3 |
| Sat, Sep 14 |  | @ Wake Forest | W, 40-6 |
| Sat, Sep 21 |  | vs Georgia Southern | W, 52-13 |
| Sat, Sep 28 |  | vs Kentucky | L, 20-17 |
| Sat, Oct 5 |  | @ South Carolina | W, 27-3 |
| Sat, Oct 12 |  | vs LSU | L, 29-26 (2 OT) |
| Sat, Oct 26 |  | vs Oklahoma | W, 26-14 |
| Sat, Nov 2 |  | @ Arkansas | W, 63-35 |
| Sat, Nov 16 |  | vs Georgia | W, 28-10 |
| Sat, Nov 23 |  | @ Florida | L, 24-17 |
| Sat, Nov 30 |  | vs Mississippi State | W, 26-14 |
| Thu, Jan 2 |  | vs Duke (Gator Bowl) | 6:30 PM • ESPN |