Tuesday was a historic day for all of college football, but by next week it won’t mean a darnn thing.
The first ever College Football Playoff rankings were released Tuesday night on ESPN, with MSU cracking the top ten at No. 8. That means if the playoffs were to start today, MSU would be on the outside looking in.
But as we all know the regular season is still in full swing and these rankings serve simply as a starting point, not the final product. So don’t buy too much into it.
As a sports fan it’s easy to get tied up in the moment and start complaining or debating about where your team belongs. That’s what makes sports fun, especially college football.
Breaking down where each team stands makes great barber shop talk and the weekly rankings will surely create such conversations throughout the rest of the season. I won’t lie and say I didn’t come up with my own rankings before the selection committee released theirs on Tuesday, but like my own rankings, there’s not a lot of substance in the rankings released by the big guys.
As of right now, the four playoff teams would include three SEC West Division teams — Mississippi State, Auburn and Ole Miss. That simply won’t happen at the end of the season. Auburn and Ole Miss play this week so you can all but write off one of those teams since the loser will be sitting with two losses.
On top of this week’s big time matchup between Ole Miss-Auburn, six of the top 10 teams play at least one other top 10 team down the stretch. So there is at least some changes expected as soon as next week.
However, don’t completely throw out the initial rankings that were released on Tuesday. While this batch of rankings won’t mean anything come Dec. 7 when the selection committee chooses the playoff teams, yesterday did show us some of the thinking and logic from the group in the war room.
The fact that three SEC teams were selected in the opening rankings shows that the committee is in love with the conference. Obviously this doesn’t come as much of a surprise but it supports the idea of a second SEC team sneaking into the playoff.
That would be bad news for both MSU and the Big 12. But as I've been saying these rankings are just the beginning and by no means should MSU fans give up hope. Because as we’ve already seen this year, anyone can win on any given day. MSU still has all of its goals in front of itself and as head coach Mark Dantonio has been harping all season, win out and the Spartans will be right in the conversation. That motto won’t change anytime soon.
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