Why Mississippi State Finished Too Low in the Preseason SEC Football Media Poll

Mississippi State projects as a vastly underrated team ahead of the 2022 college football season.

Mississippi State football faces arguably college football's toughest schedule in 2022 and the media hasn't expressed a great deal of confidence in the team's ability to be successful against it. 

That was well reflected based on the voting results of the 2022 Preseason SEC Football Media Poll, in which the Bulldogs were picked to finish sixth in the SEC West. Only Auburn, which finished dead-last in the poll, was predicted to finish out the season worse in the division.

Based on the voting, Alabama is top dog after falling to Georgia in the College Football National Championship back in January.

2022 Preseason SEC Football Media Poll Results - Western Division 

1. Alabama

2. Texas A&M

3. Arkansas

4. Ole Miss

5. LSU

6. Mississippi State

7. Auburn

Despite the many reasons for optimism that surround the Bulldogs in 2022, this doesn't necessarily come as a surprise given the lack of attention in general the program gets from the media.

While MSU has had its ups and downs throughout the years and finished the 2021 season with a lackluster 7-6 record, it's easy to make the case that voting media members simply have the team too low here.

Looking at the record alone, it's important to remember the egregious officiating errors that directly affected the final outcome of the losses the Memphis and Arkansas. Those games made up two of MSU's three losses that were by a mere three points or less, and the errors made by officials against the Tigers were so poor that a statement had to be released after the game.

Had these issues not occurred, MSU realistically would have ended the season with a 9-4 record, which reflects where the team is actually at. That's a big jump from the 3-7 record the team held in first year of the Mike Leach era.

Moving forward, the Bulldogs have some momentum and something to build off of with a more experienced team that was among the youngest in the nation when Leach took over in 2020. With this, the Bulldogs have players with more game reps under their belt who know and fit the system well -- something that wasn't the case out of the gate.

MSU features solid talent on both sides of the ball, with junior quarterback Will Rogers the headliner on offense while cornerback Emmanuel Forbes could rise to become an early 2023 NFL Draft pick as one of the defense's most valuable players. 

It could be a close race between these two as to who is selected higher in the draft when they choose to declare, with Rogers projected to be one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC and possibly the nation.

The Bulldogs showed the ability to upset ranked teams in shocking fashion last season and should be able to do that and garner some very real hype of their own as a darkhorse team this fall.