by Travis Normand

With Auburn ranked No. 3 and Ole Miss No. 4 in the first playoff poll, their game tonight was the first head-to-head match-up between two playoff bound teams.  In other words, their game was essentially a playoff game, as I can only imagine that the winner would still be considered for one of the four playoff spots (the loser would have two losses, as both teams already had one loss entering the game).

Auburn ended up defeating Ole Miss, 35-31.  It was a close game, so it will be interesting to see what the playoff committee does with Ole Miss in terms of how far down the rankings they move them.  On the other hand, No. 2 Florida State struggled Thursday night against No. 25 Louisville and No. 1 Mississippi State struggled against Arkansas, so it will be interesting to see if the top three get shuffled.

Finally, No. 5 Oregon won their game against Stanford, 45-16.  With No. 6 Alabama having a bye-week and No. 7 TCU winning 31-30 over No. 20 West Virginia, I can only imagine that Oregon will assume No. 4 playoff spot/rank.