No. 1 Mississippi State (9-0) is set to take on No. 5 Alabama (8-1) today at 3:30 PM in what could be a playoff elimination game for SEC West rivals.
"It's just the SEC West," Alabama quarterback Blake Sims said Monday, according to ESPN. "There's a lot of great teams, and Mississippi State is a great team."
LSU and Texas A&M have faded from playoff contention. No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Mississippi seem to be on the outside looking in. Mississippi State and Alabama each have significant SEC wins already: The Bulldogs over Auburn in October and Alabama in overtime against LSU last week.
Mississippi State remains the top overall ranked team in both the College Football Top 25 AP Poll and the College Football Playoff rankings. Alabama, however, was bumped one spot down to fifth by TCU in the CFP rankings this week.
Despite their five-season run as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, Mississippi State come into today's come as a one-touchdown underdog at Bryant-Denny Stadium, where Alabama has notched 13 straight victories.
"Every article you read, everywhere you look, we're the big underdog in this game," Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen said. "We've done that before and we know that role. We'll be OK with that. Our guys will play with great effort and with a chip on our shoulder that we try to play with every week no matter what the rankings or what everyone else is predicting."
The Tide are experienced in big games, winning three of four matchups against No. 1 teams over the past five seasons.
"They probably have more 5-star players sitting on the bench who can't get a rep than we have on our entire roster," Mullen said.
Bulldgos quarterback and Heisman hopeful Dak Prescott leads the SEC's top offense against its No. 1 defense in what promises to be one of the best football games of the weekend.
You can watch the live stream of the game HERE.
