LSU Tigers

LSU Falls Out Of Top 25; What That Means For The Tigers

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

With Saturday’s gut-wrenching loss on the road against the Auburn Tigers, the LSU Tigers officially fell out of the Associated Press Top-25 rankings this afternoon. The Tigers entered the fourth week of the season ranked 18th in the nation.

The plummet completes an abrupt, disappointing fall from grace for LSU. Going into the 2016 season, the Tigers were a top-five team in every poll and were considered SEC Championship contenders and heavy favorites to land in the College Football Playoffs.

With the drop to an unranked status, Tiger fans can let go of any hope of a College Football Playoff or National Championship appearance. LSU COULD still find their way to Atlanta to play for the conference title, but with the way the team has performed and Alabama and Texas A&M in their way atop the SEC West, I can’t see that happening either.

The loss also essentially guarantees that long-time head coach Les Miles is out of a job in the very near future. Miles narrowly avoided being fired at the end of the 2015 campaign, and after beginning the year with an extremely tight leash, there is no way he can survive his team going from National Championship contender to unranked before the Tigers have played five games.

We all had high hopes for this year’s team, and justifiably so. The LSU Tigers are clearly one of college football’s most talented teams, but poor coaching and even worse quarterback play have kept this team from reaching its full potential. There’s still plenty of season left and a lot of meaningful games to be played, but sitting unranked after week four, things don’t look great for LSU.