#5: Mississippi, Penn State or Oklahoma State?

#5: Mississippi, Penn State or Ok State

Speedblog

Ah, an interesting debate.

Who SHOULD be the 5th best team in the nation? Mississippi, Penn State or Oklahoma State?

On the two major polls, one has Oklahoma State, Penn State and Mississippi, in that order. The other has Penn State, Oklahoma State and Ohio State, in that order, with Mississippi trailing the three.

So I guess in theory one might say that Mississippi is not in this argument as the top 5 candidate. I would agree.

The Rebels had a great year last year, in fact beating Texas Tech in a bowl, and also handing Florida their only defeat, so there is credibility to the team. And with a lot of offensive returners, this is indeed a good team initially. And with no Florida and Georgia on the schedule, the greatest fears are teams like Alabama, South Carolina, LSU and maybe Auburn or Tennessee. But I don’t think anybody is predicting the Rebels to go undefeated, even with a “softer” schedule in the SEC than some will admit.

So the real debate is, who is better at this point of the year, Oklahoma State or Penn State? If you are basing it off last year, Ok State had a great year but ran up on some of the best teams in the nation, that being Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma, and lost in the bowl game to Oregon. Those are four HARD games folks.

Some may argue that their only real quality win was over Missouri, meaning their wins might be kinda…inflated. But beating Georgia was exactly what the doctor ordered. I can’t see them going undefeated, but the way things have gone already this year, be mindful of injuries and upsets.

Penn State lost two games last year, a loss to USC and an embarrassing loss to Iowa just after beating Ohio State. They have the ability to repeat from last year, and I think the Big 10 is a very quality conference, so wins do mean a lot. Losing to a 9-4 Iowa team isn’t that bad, especially when you lost at their house. I think the Nittany Lions has what it takes to at LEAST repeat last year’s record.

If that is true, then I would give the nod, by slightest of margins, to Penn State over Oklahoma State. But mind you, this is only after 2 weeks, so whether one is #5 and the other #6 has no real bearing right now, it’s what they do over the next 10 or so weeks that will determine that.