Multiple College Gameday Analysts Project Ole Miss to Make Playoff in 2024

Multiple analysts on ESPN's College Gameday projected that the Ole Miss Rebels will make the College Football Playoff this season.

Dec 30, 2023; Atlanta, GA, USA; Mississippi Rebels quarterback Jaxson Dart (2) reacts after a touchdown throw against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the second half at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Ole Miss Rebels have an obvious goal in the 2024 season, and that is to reach the College Football Playoff. According to analysts on ESPN's College Gameday, that is a very achievable mark.

On the first edition of this season's College Gameday, four of the analysts on the show gave their predictions on the field of the new 12-team College Football Playoff. Three of those four analysts included Ole Miss in their projections with varying seeds, and you can view those predictions below.

The predictions for the 12 team playoff this coming season from College Gameday: pic.twitter.com/Z0JFwNtF19

— College Football Alerts  (@CFBAlerts_) August 24, 2024

Beginning with former Alabama coach Nick Saban, he has the Rebels as the No. 8 seed, hosting a first round playoff game that is a rematch of last season's Peach Bowl against Penn State. The winner of that game would go on to face top-seeded Georgia, and Saban later predicted that Georgia would win the national championship this season.

Pat McAfee is the most optimistic on Ole Miss, giving the Rebels the No. 5 seed and playing host to Boise State in the first round. The winner of that game would advance to face No. 4 Virginia Tech, in his projections.

Kirk Herbstreit did not include the Rebels in his playoff field, but Desmond Howard rounded out the group by placing Ole Miss at the No. 6 seed and hosting Notre Dame in Oxford. The winner of that game in Howard's projections would go on to play the three-seed Miami Hurricanes.

There is obviously a lot of time between today's Week 0 games and the cementing of the playoff field, but Ole Miss is still widely considered to be in contention for one of these 12-team spots. That amount of hype is something that head coach Lane Kiffin is working to guard against as his team's season opener approaches next week.

"I do get concerned, obviously," Kiffin said during fall camp. "I talk extensively about it to the players because I think that comes at them nonstop nowadays because of phones. That's a big concern of mine. I'm trying to work on those things all the time with these guys because now there's more of it than we've ever had here for sure with the preseason rankings, position rankings or mock draft things. It's a lot to guard against."

The Rebels will open their season next Saturday at home against the FCS Furman Paladins.