CFP Committee Chair Gives Reasoning Behind Ole Miss Football's Latest Ranking

The Ole Miss Rebels fell to No. 14 in this week's College Football Playoff Rankings. What put them behind teams like Alabama and Clemson?

Nov 23, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin looks on against the Florida Gators during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Following the Ole Miss Rebels' loss to Florida over the weekend, it was obvious that they would take a dip in the College Football Playoff Rankings, but just how far was uncertain until Tuesday night.

It was then that the Rebels officially came in at No. 14 in the new CFP pecking order, directly behind the likes of Clemson and Alabama and directly ahead of South Carolina. The teams ranked from 13-15 are all three-loss SEC teams, and on Tuesday night, CFP Selection Committee chair Warde Manuel fielded questions on what put Alabama ahead of Ole Miss in this week's ranking installment.

"Yeah, they're really -- I would say in the committee's eyes, they're really similar teams, and they've had similar ways that they've gone through the season," Manuel said. "Both have had losses that you didn't expect them to have.

"Alabama had a loss at Oklahoma, and Oklahoma's performance was dominant against Alabama, and then you have the loss by Mississippi to Florida at Florida. It was one of those losses that you just don't expect them to have. It was a close game, but where we evaluated it, we came out with Alabama ahead of Mississippi and South Carolina since Alabama and Mississippi both won head to head against South Carolina."

Going a little deeper into the resumes, Alabama got the nod over Ole Miss this week because of wins on the docket that the Rebels don't have, namely over teams like Missouri and LSU. Ole Miss, of course, lost to LSU in overtime in dramatic fashion back in October.

"Because of their win over Georgia. They won against Missouri. They've beat South Carolina and they won at LSU in dominant fashion," Manuel said of Alabama. "When you put those four wins against Mississippi and what they did, they had the win against Georgia and the win at South Carolina, but they had a tough loss to Florida; lost to LSU in overtime.

"So when we compared resumes, that's how we saw it in terms of the difference between Alabama and Mississippi."

As far as putting Clemson in the 12th spot, the committee took into account that the Tigers only have two losses and have put up some recent wins that showed some positive momentum.

"Well, Clemson slid up with some losses ahead of them by Alabama and Mississippi, and they had a win against Citadel, obviously, but that wasn't the big reason," Manuel said.

"Obviously they're at 9-2, with only two losses. The teams right behind them have three losses. We just felt as a committee as we looked at their body of work, with three straight wins after their loss to Louisville, including back-to-back wins against Virginia Tech and Pitt, that they deserved to move up into that 12th position."

Being at No. 14 in this week's rankings doesn't necessarily mean that Ole Miss' path to the playoff is closed, but it would likely need to beat Mississippi State on Friday in the annual Egg Bowl and root for chaos in the spots above them.

Rebels wide receiver Cayden Lee discussed on Monday that the potential of reaching the playoff could provide some motivation this week, but he and his team have to simply be focused on taking down Mississippi State in the annual rivalry bout.

"I guess you could say yes because everybody wants to play in the playoff," Lee said. "That was our goal all along: play in a national championship. But we've got to go out and take care of business to even have any hope of that happening. We've got to have some other people lose some games, but our focus is on Mississippi State right now."

Kickoff on Friday between Ole Miss and Mississippi State is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford. The game will be televised on ABC.