Ole Miss stays at No. 19 in AP poll

Published 12:02 pm Monday, November 2, 2015

After its second straight Southeastern Conference win — and first on the road since Alabama — there was not much movement for Ole Miss in the polls.

The newest installments of both national college football rankings felt the Rebels (7-2, 4-1 SEC) deserved to be in the top 20. The Associated Press poll as well as the Amway Coaches Poll had Ole Miss ranked at No. 19 Sunday.

It is the same ranking Ole Miss received from AP voters a week ago when the Rebels defeated Texas A&M 23-3, moving them up five spots. The Rebels received 414 points this week.

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The top 5 of the AP poll remained the same with Ohio State, Baylor, Clemson, LSU and TCU rounding it out, respectively.

With the first College Football Playoff rankings to be released Tuesday night, Ole Miss will know where it stands when it comes to an outside chance at making a run for a final four spot in five weeks. Many pundits feel that if the Rebels somehow run the table, make it to Atlanta and win the SEC Championship, it would in effect cause the SEC to be without a team in the playoffs.

Ole Miss’ two losses are to Florida and Memphis. Both were bad losses in regards to how Ole Miss performed, but when it comes to the Rebels’ resume, the losses are to a one-loss Gator team and an undefeated Memphis team ranked 11th and 15th, respectively.

The resume will not matter though if Ole Miss does not continue to take care of its business. That starts with a home game against Arkansas on Saturday (2:30 p.m., CBS). The Rebels control their own destiny in the SEC Western Division.

A win over the Razorbacks would set up a battle for at least a share of the West lead Nov. 21 against visiting LSU, which travels to No. 7 Alabama on Saturday for a  top-10 showdown.