Is Mississippi worth a top 10 ranking?

Why is Mississippi ranked in the top 10?

Hmm, this is interesting to think about on the day that all college football breaks out and makes that dash for the BCS Championship. It kinda struck me as odd that Ole Miss would be ranked in the top ten, at #8. This means that people think that this team is one of the best teams in the nation.

The AP Poll has them #8, better than California, LSU, Penn State and Oklahoma State…hmm. The USA Today Poll has them #10, above teams like Oklahoma State, California and Georgia.

Is this a legit ranking? Let’s look into this by first going to last year.

It’s important that a team that is ranked high this year has to have had something to springboard off from last year. You don’t go 1-11 and get ranked in the top 25 the next year. So to see why the pollsters put Mississippi in the top 10, we have to see how they finished last year.

In 2008 the Mississippi Rebels finished 9-4, a pretty strong record for any team, but particularly strong for the state of Mississippi. I mean, let’s face it, no team out of that state is scaring anybody, whether Ole Miss, Miss State or Southern Miss. But how did the Rebels get to this record?

The season started with a huge win over Memphis, a Conference USA foe, but lost the next game to Wake Forest. A cupcake win over Samford followed by a conference loss to Vanderbilt evened the Rebels to 2-2.

But Mississippi shook the world by beating Florida 31-30...in the Gator’s own house. Now people were taking some notice, but the very next week, they lost at home to South Carolina 31-24. It just seemed that the Rebels could not string together back-to-back wins. A close loss to Alabama moved the Rebels to 3-4 and in danger of MISSing… post season.

There must have been some magic in that old Mississippi hat they found, for when they placed it on their heads….oh wait, that’s something else….

But it was at this point that Mississippi began to separate themselves from the “average pack” in the conference, winning at Arkansas by 2, beating Auburn by 10, crushing LA Monroe 59-0 and even beating LSU 31-13. They capped off the regular season beating state rival, Miss State 45-0. All of a sudden, this team has made some serious noise.

They capped off the season by beating high-scoring Texas Tech 47-34, sending a message that next year (2009) people had better recognize the Rebels.

So, are they legit?

Consider last year they actually finished the season ranked #14 or #15, depending on which poll you trust more (AP or USA Today), so one can’t argue them moving up a few spots to begin the season. But the secondary question has to be, were the wins last year strong enough to validate that?

Examine their 9 wins, and more importantly the conference ones. We know Memphis last year was 6-7, and well, Samford does not really count. Vanderbilt was a 7-6 team, both Arkansas and Auburn was 5-7. LSU was 8-5, Mississippi State was 4-8. To me this is a legit schedule of foes to beat, granted there was some under .500 but you get that in every conference. Oh by the way, they also BEAT Florida and Texas Tech.

This year, they don’t have to see Florida in the regular season, and some say their schedule might be a little weaker than you’d like. But they still have to go through the SEC, meaning games against Alabama, LSU for key notes. In looking at their schedule, and if they play like last year, they COULD be the sleeper team. Many people say they have an excellent quarterback, and they don’t lose a lot of weapons from last year.

I gotta tell you, I was skeptical when I first saw them in the top 10, but after looking at some things, I think maybe they were properly placed. I might have had them maybe #10 or #11, but that’s about where they are now. If they play like they did the second half of last year, they will shake the conference up. But if they rest on the deeds of last year, they might find themselves back in the midst of the SEC bottom. The thing about teams that find lightning in a bottle is that all the other teams get a special bead out for them next year. Any team can have one good year…but the great teams keep it going.

We’ll learn more about these Rebels as the season progresses.