If it weren’t for a tossup fourth-quarter during a night game at Death Valley, Ole Miss and Mississippi State would’ve entered November ranked No. 3 and No. 1 in the Associated Press poll, respectively.

The Rebels came within a play or two of starting 8-0 after an iconic home win against then-No. 1 Alabama as ESPN’s College GameDay visited Oxford, Miss., for the first time.

The Bulldogs started 9-0 and stayed in the College Football Playoff discussion until the final week of the regular season.

Even the most crotchety, walked-to-school-uphill-both-ways-in-pre-global-warning-snow-flurries Magnolia State historian will tell you last year was the best season in Mississippi football history.

It’s unfair to expect both the Rebels and Bulldogs to sustain Top 5 rankings deep into every season. But what does sustained football success look like in the Magnolia State? And how do the two flagship programs achieve it?

“Recruiting would be the first thing,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze told Saturday Down South in a phone interview.

Said Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen minutes earlier: “We’ve got to keep winning.”

Every SEC program is flush with cash right now thanks to the College Football Playoff, ever-increasing TV revenue and especially the SEC Network. Both Freeze and Mullen will make in the neighborhood of $4.3 million per season via their new contracts. The facilities at the school can’t rival Alabama or Oregon, but neither are they shacks made out of Mississippi River mud.

If ever the environment was conducive to upward mobility, it’s now.

Mississippi State produced five NFL draft picks and seven Bulldogs undrafted free agents signed contracts. Oh, and All-SEC quarterback Dak Prescott returns. Ole Miss boasts four players who could merit first-round consideration after the ’15 season — as juniors.

Freeze’s Rebels have recruited way above the program’s historical water mark, landing the nation’s consensus No. 8 class in 2013 and staying within range of the Top 10 every year since.

“I think both of us are going to have really good programs,” Freeze told SDS. “The  problem is, in this conference, nobody is going backwards. You may be better on the field and it not be reflected on the scoreboard with this league that we play in. Everybody does a good job.

“But you’ve got to add quality depth and quality players. I think we’re recruiting high enough that if we stay healthy and get solid play from those guys, we have a chance to be relevant in the Southeastern Conference.”

Mullen’s Bulldogs are the West Division version of Missouri, recruiting and developing unpolished two- and three-star athletes with potential. But Mississippi State, thanks to an extended stay at No. 1 last season, has gained credibility and respect with recruits nationwide, so with another few seasons like that, the Bulldogs could close the gap.

And that’s the crux. To stay relevant in the SEC and beyond on a yearly basis — like both teams were last year, even with an onslaught of late losses — the teams must remain in the middle of the pack or better in the SEC West. For at least a couple more seasons. The more the better.

Both programs have elevated themselves beyond just last season. But better and sixth or seventh place in the West Division won’t help either program sustain traction with the public or with recruits.

“When you play in the SEC West, (winning) is the biggest challenge,” Mullen told SDS. “It’s a division where there’s a lot of good football teams. People expect to win. The margin for error from first place to seventh place in the SEC West I think is very, very small.

“We’ve got to make sure we keep our edge, we’re playing at a very, very high level, execute and find a way to win. (We can sustain success) if we can stay near the top and can stay away from being near that bottom — because that margin is not very much at all.”

Asked a comparative question about his ’14 and ’15 defenses, Freeze might as well have been talking about whether the Rebels and Bulldogs will finish high enough in the standings in 2015 to keep this topic relevant into next offseason. Substitute the word “team” for “defense” and you’ll see what I mean.

“I think we have potential to be as good. You’ve got to go do it on the field,” Freeze said. “There’s no way I can really judge that until we do that, but I do like the makeup of our defense.”