Dan Mullen released his weekly Top 25 in the aftermath of Week 4, and the ESPN college football analyst and former head coach at Florida and Mississippi State shockingly did not have an SEC team at the top of his rankings.
Instead, Mullen threw a little curveball at the college football world by putting Ohio State at No. 1. The Buckeyes started slow last Saturday before rolling to a 49-14 home victory over Marshall, and they remained at No. 3 in Sunday’s new AP Poll, behind No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Georgia.
But in Mullen’s world, Ohio State is the cream of the crop so far in 2024.
— Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) September 22, 2024
After Ohio State, 5 of the following 6 teams in Mullen’s Top 25 are from the SEC, with Texas, Alabama and Tennessee following the Buckeyes in that order at No. 2, 3 and 4. Mullen has Miami at No. 5, and then it’s back to the SEC with Georgia at No. 6 and Ole Miss at No. 7.
Mullen put Missouri at No. 11 after the Tigers stumbled their way to an overtime victory over Vanderbilt. The Tigers were also No. 11 in the new AP Poll, falling 4 spots from last week.
The only other SEC team in Mullen’s Top 25 was Oklahoma, which he had at No. 24 after the Sooners’ home loss to Tennessee on Saturday night.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
