After finishing the season ranked #29 last year, the Arizona Wildcats — hot off their upset win at Oregon — have claimed the top spot in the inaugural 2014 Anderson & Hester Rankings. The second and fourth spots are held by two schools from Mississippi — #2 Mississippi and #4 Mississippi State — that went a combined 15-11 last year. Sandwiched in between are the Auburn Tigers, who came within 14 seconds of winning last season’s national championship. TCU, which went 4-8 last year, rounds out the top-5.
This is quite a different list than one finds in the coaches’ poll. That poll has Arizona ranked 13th, two spots behind the Ducks team that the undefeated Wildcats just beat in Eugene. It has undefeated TCU ranked 12th, three spots behind the Oklahoma team that the Horned Frogs just beat on Saturday. And it has both Mississippi teams, each of which has handed a team its only loss — Mississippi beat (4-1) Alabama, Mississippi State beat (5-1) Texas A&M — behind Baylor, which has yet to beat (or play) a team in the top-65 (in the Anderson & Hester Rankings).
