Heather Dinich predicts controversy among Ole Miss, Georgia, Alabama in second College Football Playoff rankings

As the College Football Playoff committee weighed the second rankings, the big question was how it would handle so many SEC teams with two losses. Five teams enter Week 11 with two losses – including Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss.

According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, Alabama could have the edge among those three teams after last week’s win over LSU. However, even though Ole Miss defeated Georgia, the Bulldogs could still end up ranked higher.

Dinich noted the impact Ole Miss’ loss to Kentucky could have on the rankings. Because the committee looks at the “whole body of work,” that’s an important blemish on the resume while Georgia’s only other loss came to Alabama. Add in a victory over Clemson to start the year, and Dinich said UGA will likely be above Ole Miss.

“They’ve got two-loss SEC teams to sort through,” Dinich said on SportsCenter ahead of Tuesday’s rankings reveal. “My projection is Alabama is still the committee’s highest-ranked two-loss team because of the head-to-head win against Georgia.

“Ole Miss fans don’t want to hear the next thing I’m going to say. I think that Georgia is still going to be ranked ahead of Ole Miss in spite of the head-to-head win just a couple days ago, and the reason I say that is because it’s not just head-to-head results in the committee meeting room. They factor in the whole body of work. And they’ll look at the fact that Georgia, to this point, has the No. 1 strength of schedule. That includes a win at Texas and against a CFP Top-25 team in Clemson. And there is that Ole Miss loss to Kentucky – I have them at 13 on the bubble.”

In the initial rankings released last week, Georgia came in as the highest-ranked SEC team at No. 3 – leading a pack of four SEC teams in the Top 12. The Bulldogs’ loss to Ole Miss is likely to drop them in the rankings, though, although how far will be of interest for the 12-team bracket.

From Alabama’s perspective, though, a road victory over LSU is crucial to its resume. The Crimson Tide didn’t leave any room for doubt as they got the 42-13 win in primetime in what was effectively an “elimination game” for the College Football Playoff. Alabama was the No. 11 team in the initial rankings and LSU was at No. 15.

It’s all part of the intrigue around Tuesday night’s rankings reveal. The show will be between games of the Champions Classic on ESPN, starting at approx. 8:30 p.m. ET.