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Ole Miss football head coach Lane Kiffin is unhappy about how the College Football Playoff Selection Committee is treating the SEC. The No. 14 Rebels are coming off a brutal loss against the Florida Gators, in which star quarterback Jaxon Dart uncharacteristically struggled with turnovers down the stretch. The Rebels have one more game this regular season against 2-9 Mississippi State and ultimately will need plenty of help to break into the twelve-team playoff.
While his program was ranked as the second-highest three-loss team on Tuesday, Lane Kiffin is still confused by the committee's inconsistencies regarding strength of schedule. According to On3 sports reporter, Nick Schultz, Kiffin gave a brutally honest take on the SEC disrespect on a local radio station.
“It's ridiculous, the difference of playing in the SEC and the ACC and Big 12. To see these rankings – I'm not even doing the Ole Miss homer thing. To think that you're looking at schools and you're talking about, like, Clemson's schedule and who they played over Alabama. It's stupid. … I'm not going to name them. Take some of those teams up there that haven't played anybody and put them down in the SEC, they're .500 teams.”
Lane Kiffin has a fair point about the playoff committee
Unfortunately, Ole Miss football lost the chance to control its destiny after the loss on Saturday. The Rebels entered the matchup as the No. 9 team in the country, coming off an impressive home win over No. 3 Georgia. But it wasn't meant to be, as Kiffin's program has now lost to three teams that are not currently ranked: Kentucky, LSU, and Florida. Still, the fifth-year head coach in Oxford makes a fair point about the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.
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The rankings have been all over the place the entire year and do not seem to consider quality wins. Teams like No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 6 Miami, and No. 10 Indiana do not have a win in the current rankings. No. 4 Penn State has only one top-25 victory over 23rd-ranked Illinois. All of these teams additionally have significantly weaker schedules than the Rebels. For example, Notre Dame's SOS is a shocking 78th in the country, and the Fighting Irish also have an embarrassing loss to unranked Northern Illinois.
Overall, the committee has been all over the place. It doesn't make sense that a team like Miami, which hasn't beaten anyone and lost to an unranked Georgia Tech team, is four spots in front of an Indiana team that hasn't beaten anyone but at least looks dominant in its wins and lost at No. 2 Ohio State.
In addition, this committee has changed its mind about teams after weeks where there's been no reason to. For example, Alabama once jumped Miami in the rankings after a weekend where the Crimson Tide beat Mercer, an FCS team, and the Hurricanes didn't play. That jump doesn't make sense and is indicative of the problem here.
Overall, Lane Kiffin's frustration with the playoff committee's inconsistent criteria is justifiable. Still, the Rebels have lost three games to unranked teams. They unfortunately have no one to blame but themselves for their predicament heading into the Egg Bowl.
