College Football Playoff Rankings: Where did Mississippi State, Florida State Others Land

The second College Football Playoff Top-25 rankings were released Tuesday, and the rankings still carry an SEC flavor with six teams in the top-25 with No. 1 Mississippi State, Auburn (3) and Alabama (5) leading the way.

Given that Ole Miss (11) still stands just outside the top-10 with two losses shows that SEC teams are carrying quite a bit of respect with the committee, and it adds to the idea that two SEC teams can make the playoff.  Of course, the Oregon Ducks look as if they will make the playoff if they win out, and with Florida State also being in the same boat, there just may not be enough room for two SEC schools unless one of these conference frontrunners fail to win out. Even if these teams falter, teams such as TCU, Kansas State and Arizona State are close enough to make an attack at the top-four as potential one loss conference champions.

As far as the SEC goes, either Auburn or Alabama are assured of having at least two losses, and with the Crimson Tide playing LSU and Mississippi State the next two weeks, there is opportunity for the Tide to pick up a second loss before the Iron Bowl.

For the SEC, the nightmare scenario would be LSU defeating Alabama this weekend, the Crimson Tide knocking off Mississippi State next weekend, and then the Tide knocking off Auburn in the Iron Bowl with Mississippi State knocking off Ole Miss and then losing in the SEC Championship game. In that case, it would be unlikely, without some other teams dropping games as well, that the SEC would put anyone into the playoff, and if they did get a spot, it would just be one team.

If these projections went into effect today, the Bulldogs would meet up with the Oregon Ducks in (presumably) the Sugar Bowl, and Florida State and Auburn would square off in (again, presumably) the Rose Bowl.