Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin posted a pitch for Ole Miss to make the College Football Playoffs on X Sunday evening. It’s not totally clear if these are Kiffin’s words or just an argument he agrees with, but the sentiment doesn’t change either way. The Ole Miss head coach is looking to make some noise around his team with less than a week until the final bracket is revealed and certainly did so on Sunday.
Kiffin’s post, a nearly 200-word screenshot making a case for Ole Miss, is directed squarely at the selection committee with the only caption being, “@CFBPlayoff.”
Kiffin’s post details reasons why he believes Ole Miss should be ranked ahead of Alabama and South Carolina in hopes of securing one of the final playoff spots as a three-loss team.
After sending out the tweet at 5:46 p.m. ET on Sunday, Kiffin’s post has 4.7 million views in just about 24 hours.
“After all the chaos (Saturday) there looks to be three bubble teams fighting for the last remaining playoff spot,” the screenshot on X reads. “All three are 9-3 and represent the SEC: Ole Miss Football, Alabama Football, South Carolina Gamecocks. South Carolina lost to the both of them and their best win is against Clemson. Ole Miss and Alabama best win is against Georgia. Georgia beat Clemson 34-3.. safe to say that SC is out and it’s between Ole Miss & Alabama.”
The post goes on to provide details for Kiffin and the Rebels’ argument.
“Ole Miss has 9 wins outscoring their opponents 390-94 (+296).
Alabama has 9 wins outscoring their opponents 371-119 (+252).
In the three losses Ole Miss was outscored 73-60 (-13).
In the three losses Alabama was outscored 88-55 (-33).
Common opponents:
Both beat Georgia… Rebs won by 18. Bama won by 7.
Both beat South Carolina. Rebs won by 24. Bama won by 2.
Alabama beat LSU by 29. Ole Miss lost to LSU by 3 in overtime.
Ole Miss beat Oklahoma by 12. Alabama lost to Oklahoma by 21.”
The post also ends with a strong statement about the Rebels’ SEC foe.
“Clearly Ole Miss should be in the playoff over Alabama, but Bama is the bigger brand and more than likely will get in over Ole Miss,” the screenshot reads.
@CFBPlayoff pic.twitter.com/U39OUZrOmM
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 1, 2024
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ESPN recently had 13 analysts make their College Football Playoff predictions following the chaos of rivalry week. The list had some interesting results.
None of the analysts picked Ole Miss to make the playoffs.
Of the 13 predictions, only one had Alabama.
Eight of the predictions included South Carolina including one prediction that had the Gamecocks slotted two spots above Tennessee and one spot above Georgia despite the Vols and Bulldogs having one fewer overall loss.
Perhaps ESPN’s experts are taking recent games as a big factor for what the committee might decide on Dec. 8. South Carolina rattled off six straight wins to close the season including victories over No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 23 Missouri, and No. 12 Clemson, but the Gamecocks did go 3-3 in the first six games of the season.
Alabama and Ole Miss have a good case among the trio of teams, as pointed out in Kiffin’s post, but the Tide and Rebels both have a very recent loss to unranked teams in the penultimate week of the regular season. South Carolina, on the other hand, does not.
The pieces of the puzzle will begin to fall in place this Tuesday night in the second-to-last CFB Playoff rankings update of the season with the final rankings and bracket releasing on Sunday afternoon following championship weekend this Saturday.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more on Tennessee’s path to the playoffs and the happenings around the SEC.
