Will Ole Miss fall in the CFP rankings without Lane Kiffin? How LSU’s early departure will impact the Rebels originally appeared on Sports news. Add The Sporting News as Favorite source by clicking here.
Lane Kiffin announced his decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU on Sunday.
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Now the question is, how will this impact Ole Miss’ pending College Football Playoff race?
The College Football Playoff committee flipped No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Ole Miss in last week’s rankings, something chairman Hunter Yuracheck tried to justify. with a joke “6-7”.
“We didn’t have any discussions about Ole Miss and their coach, it was all about Oregon and their performance against USC,” Yuracheck told ESPN’s Rece Davis. “Their schedule continues to grow, but they have been dominant on the offensive and defensive side of the ball (and are) really good on special teams,” Yurachek said.
With Kiffin absent, this debate will resume. How would the committee view a team without its head coach? Is there any comparison to Florida State in 2023 after star quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury?
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Should Lane Kiffin coach Ole Miss in the CFP?
This is the most polarizing question, and it has several layers. But this isn’t a Group of 5 coach moving up like North Texas’ Eric Morris, who accepted the Oklahoma State job last week. Kiffin is leaving to coach another SEC school considered a rival, and the early signing period opens Dec. 3. If Kiffin stays, Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter would end up taking more heat than Kiffin.
Is this unfortunate? Sure, but Kiffin chooses to leave for another school in the middle of the College Football Playoff — a school the Rebels beat this season. We finish what we start, but we leave before it is finished.
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Will Lane Kiffin’s decision exclude Ole Miss from the CFP?
This won’t knock the Rebels out of the College Football Playoff, and it shouldn’t. Ole Miss finished 11-1 – the fourth time in five seasons under Kiffin the Rebels won 10 or more games. It wasn’t a season of one-year wonders or dreams, but rather a reflection of the program Kiffin had built at Oxford.
Ole Miss has just one win against a ranked team — a 34-26 victory over No. 13 Oklahoma on Oct. 25. The Sooners posted two losses and entered Saturday’s action firmly in the top 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Rebels’ only loss was a 43-35 loss to No. 9 Georgia on October 18. There is nothing in this resume that suggests an Ole Miss team with one loss should be excluded from the College Football Playoff.
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Will this affect Ole Miss’ playoff seeding?
Yes. If the trade went “6-7” while Kiffin was still the head coach, what might happen when he’s gone? Eight Power 4 teams entered Week 14 with either an unbeaten record or a loss, and No. 11 BYU was the only one left outside the top eight — the schools that will either get a first-round bye or a first-round home game.
The Rebels, however, could actually move up the SEC pecking order given that No. 3 Texas A&M lost 27-17 to No. 16 Texas on Friday. The Rebels might be ranked ahead of the Aggies, but No. 10 Alabama could move ahead of Ole Miss with a win in the Iron Bowl and a berth in the SEC championship game. Georgia, No. 4, will be the highest-ranked team in this ranking.
Unless Kiffin’s departure is too compelling a factor, Ole Miss should still get a first-round playoff game at home as a top-eight seed — but they won’t be kicked out of the College Football Playoff.
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Is Lane Kiffin’s situation comparable to Florida State’s Jordan Travis?
Florida State was ranked No. 4 the week before winning the ACC championship and finishing a 13-0 season in 2023. Yet with a loss, Alabama fell from No. 8 to No. 4 and edged out the Seminoles in the last four-team College Football Playoff.
For what? Florida State was without star quarterback Jordan Travis, who suffered a season-ending broken ankle in the penultimate regular season game. FSU’s offense went from 38 points per game with Travis to 20 points per game with saves.
Still, it was a shocking decision, and revisionist history has not been kind to the committee.
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That’s why it’s almost impossible to believe that Ole Miss would drop out of the College Football Playoff, given the teams they’re ranked as heading into conference championship week.
How important is Kiffin’s presence? A lot, sure, but it’s not enough to penalize an SEC team with a loss that would have to be one of five teams in the conference to make the 12 teams. Does this put a damper on this potential first round matchup? Sure, but it’s part of a larger calendar issue where college football needs to embody the NFL. If an interim coach makes a wild-card run in the NFL, so be it. Nobody has this debate at a professional level.
