Lots of football left before final playoff poll

“We rank to this point in time, and those teams just haven’t played the strongest part of their schedule yet.” — Committee Chairman Jeff Long on Big 12 members Baylor and TCU not being among the top four teams in the initial College Football Playoff rankings

That may be the most quoted comment of Jeff Long’s life.

Arkansas’ athletic director, along with the other 11 voters, are being looked at as biased by many after the first rankings were released and the SEC had two teams among the top four with undefeated LSU No. 2 and one-loss Alabama at No. 4.

Obviously the Pac-12 and the Big 12, two of the Big Five conferences, are on the outside looking in.

However, it was only the first poll, and the only one that really counts is the last poll. There are four games remaining between now and then, and the way it sets up is every team will play at least one elimination game between now and the end of the season.

It does seem like a strong indication that despite giving Alabama its only loss, Ole Miss isn’t going to be considered even if it runs the table and finishes 11-2.

The Rebels were ranked No. 18 and have games left against unranked Arkansas and No. 2 LSU in Oxford and at No. 20 Mississippi State. There is also a possibility they could face No. 10 Florida in the SEC Championship Game.

It would take a bunch of losses among those 17 teams ranked ahead of the Rebels for Ole Miss to jump into the Final Four. Still, it seems like the playoff committee would be very interested in a oneloss SEC team but not a two loss team.

Most likely, the loser of the LSU-Alabama game Saturday will drop six or eight spots in next week’s poll.

Ole Miss isn’t the only SEC team that has to be scratching its head and wondering what the heck.

Florida’s only loss was at No. 2 LSU by a touchdown, and the Gators beat Ole Miss, which beat Alabama. However, if Florida wins out, including the SEC Championship Game, it would probably move into the top four.

No. 6 Baylor, No. 8 TCU and No. 14 Oklahoma State are all undefeated, but they can’t all finish that way.

The Pac-12’s best shot is probably No. 12 Stanford, which has Colorado, Oregon, Cal and No. 5 Notre Dame, so it needs some shaking up among the first four too.

Bottom line is this: It appears that the Sweet 16 of this first poll all have a chance to improve themselves, but most need some help too.

Last year there was a lot of criticism that neither Baylor nor TCU, with one loss, made the playoffs and that Ohio State, which was No. 16 in the initial poll, did. Of course, the Buckeyes ended the debate by winning the national championship.

For the record, it seems the histories of Alabama and Notre Dame helped them in the first poll. Now they will have to earn their place each week just like all the teams, but especially those among the Sweet 16.

It took cancer to bring down Darrell Brown, the first black football player at the University of Arkansas.

Brown died last Saturday after a courageous battle with the disease.

Brown, who went on to become an attorney, walked on for the Razorbacks in 1965 but after an ankle injury didn’t try to play football his final three years.

It was a tough year for Brown, but through many conversations over the years it wasn’t any harder to break the race barrier than he thought it would be.

Brown ran track in high school because Horatio didn’t have a football team, so he knew the odds were already against him, but he had a strong conviction that it was time for a change.

His favorite quote about that year was: “I wouldn’t do it again for a million dollars, but I wouldn’t take a million dollars for the experience.”