Despite losing to Alabama, according to the hypothetical BCS standings of the 2014 season following week 12, Mississippi State remain one of the top 4, which means they still make it into the College Football playoff alongside their SEC West rivals, Florida State and Oregon.

The polls showed the same kind of inclination: Putting the Bulldogs above TCU and Baylor, keeping Mississippi State in the top four. Five of the six computers keep Mississippi State among the top or three, while TCU themselves don’t get a single one to vote them above number 5. Baylor, number 13 or 14 according to some calculations, get a number 3 and number 4 rankings on some of the rankings systems, which means it’s going to be very tight when the Big 12 is finally called.

These hypothetical rankings were made by taking the AP Poll as part of the human factor instead of the Harris poll which doesn’t exist anymore. Combine that with the Coaches poll to the results provided by six different computers (Anderson & Hester College Football Computer Rankings, Billingsly Report, Colley Matrix, Massey Ratings, Jeff Sagarin’s College Football Rankings, Peter Wolfe’s Rankings) and you get more or less the BCS.

Alabama didn’t get the number one spot in the human polls, but are #1 according to four of the six computer ranking systems. Florida State, the number one team on the human polls and one of the two remaining undefeated teams along with the irrelevant (to this discussion) Marshall), get only two computers to rank them as number one. They’re even the #15 team on one of the ranking systems. The same ranking system that puts Ole Miss at #2 and Georgia, who might not even win the SEC East, at #3.

Ohio State are the number seven team, and will need for someone above them (and probably more than one team) to slip up in the next month in order to make the playoffs, while they win out. One of the Big 12 teams will probably overtake one of the spots among the top 4 because one SEC West team will go to the championship game, no more. Florida State are still in a position where one loss of theirs is more serious than one loss in the SEC, Pac-12 (Oregon), Big 12 and the Big Ten.

Hat Tip: seadondo