One week after putting away middling SEC East foe Kentucky late in the fourth quarter, Mississippi State pulled out a seven-point home win against an Arkansas team that hasn’t won a conference game since 2012.
The less-than-dominant performances had no affect on Sunday’s two major polls, as the Bulldogs (8-0, 5-0) remained No. 1 ahead of Florida State (8-0, 5-0).
The SEC West leader received 40 of 62 first-place votes in the Amway Coaches Poll Top 25 and 45 of 60 first-place votes in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, losing one vote to the Seminoles in each ranking system as compared to last week.
Mississippi State virtually sits two road wins away from a perfect regular season, as MSU hosts Tennessee-Martin next week and Vanderbilt on Nov. 22, both near-guarantees. The AP and Coaches Poll results also mean that the Bulldogs will travel to Tuscaloosa on Nov. 15 as the nation’s No. 1 team at 9-0.
The College Football Playoff rankings are the only poll that matter at this point, but with just three unbeaten teams in all of FBS, even that is of little consequence for this team as long as it keeps winning. Last week, Mississippi State ranked first in the initial CFP poll, which is announced each Tuesday night.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
