Ben’s Blog

Ole Miss beat No. 4 Florida 31-30 on Saturday. It was a combination of a bad day from Florida, some opportunistic plays by Ole Miss, a blocked extra point in the fourth quarter, and a little luck. Surprisingly, we’ve beaten Florida three out of the last four times we’ve played them, including the last two games in Florida. I doubt our recent record against any other SEC opponent is that good, possibly excepting Vanderbilt.

Our upset of Florida and some of the other games that took place this weekend force me to reevaluate my predictions for the rest of the year. We are currently 3-2, 3 wins from being bowl eligible. Louisiana-Monroe should be a “gimme,” so we only need to beat two of South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, and Mississippi State.

I’m going to go ahead and count Alabama and LSU as loses. Yes, upsets happen, as we can see, but they are unlikely. South Carolina is very beatable. Arkansas continues to have a horrible year (52-10 loss to Texas), so we should beat them. While Auburn is winning for the most part, they haven’t been too impressive. An upset against them is looking less unlikely. Mississippi State is a wild card just like most years.

We could have a 7-5 year by beating 3 of South Carolina, Arkansas, Auburn, and Mississippi State, and that doesn’t look as unlikely as it did a few weeks ago. Is 7-5 optimistic? Yes. Could it happen. Absolutely. This week’s game against South Carolina will tell us a lot.

This year’s SEC West champ will almost certainly be LSU or Alabama. In addition to each other, LSU has Florida and Georgia remaining, while Alabama has Auburn.

With the upset of USC, Geogia, and Florida this weekend, the top 25 looks a lot different. Oklahoma is now No. 1, despite the fact the only ranked team they’ve played is no longer ranked. They still have to play Texas (No. 5) and Texas Tech (No. 7). Alabama and LSU are two and three, respectively.

The first BCS rankings (boo) will be out in three weeks.

This weekend Ole Miss lost to Vanderbilt, the perennial whipping boy of the SEC, at home no less. We did it in style too, with six turnovers. It’s hard to beat a good junior high team when you hand them six turnovers.

Looking at the rest of the schedule, we’re going to be doing good to get a six win season, which would make us bowl eligible. Assuming a win over Louisiana-Monroe and losses to Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU, that leaves only the South Carolina, Arkansas, and Mississippi State games in question. Winning all three of those games would make us 6-6. We should win all three of those games, but we should have beaten Vanderbilt too.

Beating us put Vanderbilt at no. 21 in the Associated Press poll. That’s the first time in 24 years that Vanderbilt has been in the top 25. Currently the SEC has 3 teams in the top 5, 4 teams in the top 10, and 5 in the top 15. Not too shabby.

It looks like the SEC will come down to Georgia, Florida, and LSU. They are ranked 3, 4, and 5, respectively, in the AP Top 25. They will all play each other in the next month. It should be fun to watch. Auburn has a chance to climb back into the mix depending on what happens.

It’s become public knowledge that the SEC is the toughest football conference in the country. The New York Times (of all places) has an article about why the current national championship system doesn’t give the SEC a fair shake.