It’s politicking season, as coaches try to lay out their team’s case to make the 12-team College Football Playoff field. In the spirit of argument, Ole Miss‘ Lane Kiffin took to social media over the weekend and posted a photo that compared the Rebels’ résumé to those of Alabama and South Carolina, since all three 9-3 SEC teams are on the bubble.
Kiffin’s post contends that South Carolina should be left by the wayside since two of its three losses were to Ole Miss and Alabama. Additionally, its best win is against Clemson, while Alabama and Ole Miss both beat Georgia, a team that beat Clemson 34-3.
The manifesto Kiffin posted also outlines Ole Miss and Alabama’s point differentials in their nine wins: Ole Miss outscored its opponents by 296 points, while Alabama trailed behind a bit at 252.
Ole Miss’ Georgia win came by 18 points, while Alabama won by seven. Ole Miss beat South Carolina by 24. Alabama won by two.
Alabama did beat LSU while Ole Miss lost to the Tigers, but the Rebels beat Oklahoma and Alabama lost to the Sooners. Keeping up?
“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 end of the post reads.
Kiffin made sure to tag the official College Football Playoff X/Twitter account, for posterity’s sake.
Of course, Kiffin’s post fails to mention that two of Ole Miss’ three losses came as double-digit favorites against unranked opponents. Additionally, South Carolina was 6-0 over its last six games, while Alabama and Ole Miss each went 4-2.
All three teams do have a strong case for the playoff, but the argument is nuanced and, ultimately, the final cut comes down to the selection committee’s whims since none of them did enough to feel entirely secure in a spot.
Not to be left out of the three-loss conversation, Illinois coach Bret Bielema — ranks with Kiffin as one of more entertaining coaches in college football — chimed in with his pitch.
Illinois, which is 9-3 with losses to Oregon, Penn State and Minnesota, moved up two spots to No. 23 overall in last week’s CFP rankings. The Fighting Illini had one of the best regular seasons in school history, winning nine games for the first time since 2007, beating three teams who were ranked at the time: No. 19 Kansas, No. 22 Nebraska and No. 24 Michigan. None of those teams are still ranked, but each sported good wins in 2024 over ranked competition (Kansas beat BYU, Iowa State and Colorado, Nebraska crushed Colorado and Michigan of course just stunned Ohio State).
