AP College Football Poll 2014: Complete Week 11 Rankings Released

A Saturday in the fall can make a team's season, but more often than not in college football, it breaks a season instead.

Underestimate a lesser opponent and become the victim of an upset? Kiss the playoff goodbye. Lose for the second week in a row against brutally tough competition? Kiss the playoff goodbye. Show up flat and have an off day? Yup, you can likely kiss the playoff goodbye.    

While the selection committee's rankings are ultimately the only ones that matter at the end of the season, The Associated Press poll offers an interesting preview of what might be to come in the committee's weekly poll. Below, you'll find this week's AP poll, Bleacher Report's official Top 25 and a recap of the weekend's biggest results.
 

Rankings

Rank	Team	Record	B/R Poll
1	Mississippi State	8-0	Mississippi State
2	Florida State	8-0	Florida State
3	Auburn	7-1	Auburn
4	Alabama	7-1	Oregon
5	Oregon	8-1	Alabama
6	TCU	7-1	Michigan State
7	Michigan State	7-1	Notre Dame
8	Notre Dame	7-1	TCU
9	Kansas State	7-1	Kansas State
10	Baylor	7-1	Baylor
11	Arizona State	7-1	Ole Miss
12	Ole Miss	7-2	Arizona State
13	Ohio State	7-1	Ohio State
14	LSU	7-2	Nebraska
15	Nebraska	8-1	LSU
16	Oklahoma	6-2	Oklahoma
17	Georgia	6-2	Georgia
18	UCLA	7-2	UCLA
19	Clemson	6-2	Clemson
20	Utah	6-2	Duke
21	Arizona	6-2	Utah
22	Duke	7-1	Arizona
23	Marshall	8-0	Marshall
24	West Virginia	6-3	West Virginia
25	Wisconsin	6-2	Colorado State

Analysis

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

For a few teams, the dream all but ended on Saturday. Georgia failed to show up against middling Florida and suffered its second loss of the season. Arizona was stifled by UCLA's defense and the team that upset Oregon earlier in the season has lost two of three since.    

But perhaps no loss was more impactful on the season than Ole Miss' defeat at the hands of Auburn, its second in two weeks after falling to LSU a game prior. And perhaps no loss was more painful, either.

Ole Miss appeared to have the game in hand. With less than two minutes on the clock, Bo Wallace hit receiver Laquon Treadwell on a third-down screen. The playmaker broke three tackles and appeared to score the go-ahead touchdown. But replays would show that as he was being pulled down from behind on a tackle that left him with a broken leg, he had actually fumbled before reaching the end zone and Auburn recovered the ball for a touchback. 

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

And thus, Ole Miss went from a potential three-point lead to a 35-31 loss and almost assuredly no place in the College Football Playoff. 

"It's just a really, really sickening way to lose," Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze told reporters after the game.

Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports sympathized: 

And Gary Parrish of CBS Sports added:

Whoever coined the phrase "adding insult to injury" likely had something similar to this finish in mind. 

The Ole Miss loss changes the debate. Last week, the argument in college football was centered on which teams were deserving of the No. 3 and No. 4 ranking. Now, that argument will shift solely to the No. 4 ranking, as Auburn has clearly locked up a top-three spot given its impressive wins over Kansas State, LSU and Ole Miss and a lone loss on the road against Mississippi State. 

Schools like Alabama, Oregon, Notre Dame, Michigan State and TCU appear to have the best cases to make at the moment. The Associated Press made its choice, but it will be fascinating to see which team replaces Ole Miss when the selection committee releases its poll.