College Football Playoff Top 25: Final Championship Week Projections

Mississippi State ended its year on a sour note, losing the Egg Bowl in heartbreaking fashion to rival Ole Miss. But the defeat went further than just a lost football game. In the process, quarterback Nick Fitzgerald suffered a brutal injury that will keep him out of the postseason. And the Bulldogs also lost the head coach who had brought them to relevance.

Dan Mullen, who served under Urban Meyer at Utah and Florida, returns to Gainesville to take over the vacant position with the Gators. It leaves a vacuum in Starkville that will be hard to replace. The Bulldogs earned their eighth straight trip to a bowl game this year, but maintaining that level of success will be hard without the architect of the turnaround.

Now Mississippi State awaits its bowl destination with a lot of uncertainty looming in the future. They will be the top-ranked team with four losses in the final College Football Playoff Top 25, but maintaining this level of consistent success will be more difficult moving forward.