Ole Miss, Alabama Neck-and-Neck In Latest Polls Ahead of Saturday Showdown in Oxford
OXFORD, Miss. – Another wild weekend of college football is in the books, and that means the latest editions of the AP Poll and USA Today Coaches Poll dropped on Sunday afternoon.
This weekend featured No. 4 Clemson going on the road and suffering a blowout loss to Notre Dame. No. 6 Alabama went into Death Valley and fell to No. 10 LSU in overtime. In the game of the year so far, No. 1 Tennessee enjoyed that ranking for just five days, as the Vols went to Athens and were easily handled by No. 3 Georgia. Ole Miss had the week off.
The results from the weekend brought on major shakeups in both polls. Georgia remained No. 1 in both the Coaches and Associated Press rankings, while Tennessee fell to No. 5.
LSU moved up to No. 8 while Alabama fell to No. 11 in the Coaches Poll and No. 10 in the AP.
Ole Miss moved up to No. 9 in the coaches poll and No. 11 in the AP Poll following the Rebels’ bye week.
What’s Next?
And that brings on a very intriguing matchup between the Rebels and Tide. The last time Ole Miss was ranked ahead of Alabama when the two teams met? 2002, when Ole Miss went into Tuscaloosa ranked No. 21 and Alabama No. 24. The Tide easily handled the Rebels that year however, blowing the Rebs out, 42-7.
This year’s matchup has very high stakes. With LSU beating Alabama and already owning the tiebreaker over Ole Miss, the Rebels must win out to have a shot at Atlanta. They must also hope LSU suffers a conference loss on the road to either Arkansas or Texas A&M.
The Rebels’ quest to finish 11-1 starts with the Crimson Tide this Saturday.
Here’s what the polls look like after this weekend:
Coaches Poll Top 25
No. 1 Georgia
No. 2 Ohio State
No. 3 Michigan
No. 4 TCU
No. 5 Tennessee
No. 6 Oregon
No. 7 Southern California
No. 8 LSU
No. 9 Ole Miss
No. 10 UCLA
No. 11 Alabama
No. 12 Clemson
No. 13 Utah
No. 14 North Carolina
No. 15 Penn State
No. 16 NC State
No. 17 Tulane
No. 18 Texas
No. 19 Liberty
No. 20 Illinois
No. 21 UCF
No. 22 Kansas State
No. 23 Washington
No. 24 Kentucky
No. 25 Notre Dame
AP Poll Top 25
No. 1 Georgia
No. 2 Ohio State
No. 3 Michigan
No. 4 TCU
No. 5 Tennessee
No. 6 Oregon
No. 7 LSU
No. 8 Southern California
No. 9 UCLA
No. 10 Alabama
No. 11 Ole Miss
No. 12 Clemson
No. 13 Utah
No. 14 Penn State
No. 15 North Carolina
No. 16 Tulane
No. 17 NC State
No. 18 Texas
No. 19 Liberty
No. 20 Notre Dame
No. 21 Illinois
No. 22 UCF
No. 23 Kansas State
No. 24 Washington
No. 25 Florida State
Ole Miss and Alabama will kick off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS in Oxford.
Austin Eldridge
Austin has more than ten years in sports media, including sports talk radio, play-by-play broadcasting and journalism. He has followed Ole Miss athletics for his entire life and has covered the Rebels and the rest of the SEC while working in the Memphis media market. Outside of sports media, Austin is a musician and outdoorsman. Before a serious accident forced him to be medically discharged, he was a multi-media journalist with the Mississippi National Guard.
