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Rebel fell: Ole Miss plummets to 19

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Things stayed the same at the top of the latest unveiling of the College Football Playoff rankings, but one team took quite the tumble down the list.

Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Mississippi State are again the top four teams in the CFP rankings; in fact, the top seven teams from last week's rankings remain unchanged. TCU, Ohio State and Baylor held steady at the Nos. 5-7 spots.

Mississippi, however, took a spill, going from No. 8 last week all the way down to No. 19 after an embarrassing 30-0 road loss to Arkansas that was the Rebels' third straight SEC defeat.

As a result of Ole Miss' fall, UCLA, fresh off its win over rival USC, moved up to No. 8. Georgia and Michigan State rounded out the top 10. The Spartans benefited from the Rebels' fall, moving back into the top 10 after landing at No. 11 the previous week.

Further down the rankings is the battle to see which school from outside the Power 5 conferences will earn a guaranteed spot in a New Year's bowl. Boise State moved into the CFP top 25 rankings at No. 23, followed by Marshall, which entered at No. 24.

Only 11 of the 12 committee members voted, as Mike Tranghese was sick and unable to travel to Dallas for the two-day meetings, according to committee chair Jeff Long. Tranghese is a point person on the committee responsible for reporting on the Mountain West and Big 12 conferences.

Long said he expects Tranghese to rejoin the group next week.

"Mike Tranghese was under the weather and could not travel to Dallas for the meeting," Long said on his Tuesday teleconference. "We anticipate Mike being back with us. He just had a health issue that is not serious but precluded him from traveling."

Long also caused a bit of a stir when on ESPN's rankings show he mentioned how the rankings of teams at the time they played are factored into the committee's decision. Long has said each week that the 12-member committee starts with a clean slate and that one week's rankings should have no bearing on the next.

Long later clarified that remark, saying first that no rankings other than the committee's -- which started Oct. 28 -- are taken into account. He added that a team's previous ranking was something the committee was aware of and not a determining factor.

"Although I will say [beating] a team that is 6-5 and has been previously ranked is going to hold more weight than a 3-8 or sub-.500 team, which is an obvious thing," he said.

Long said there has been debate among the committee members about Florida State and whether the Seminoles' many close calls are a sign of weakness or strength.

Unbeaten Florida State has rallied from a halftime deficit five times and had five one-score games.

"There's certainly those who view a team coming from behind and winning as a sign of a strong team, and there's others who might believe that they're a good enough team, they should have been in front or more in control of the game as they progressed." Long said.

Information from ESPN.com's Heather Dinich and The Associated Press was used in this report.

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