Two 'Big Noon Kickoff' Analysts Predict Ole Miss Will Reach College Football Playoff

Two members of the "Big Noon Kickoff" crew on FOX predicted that the Ole Miss Rebels will make the College Football Playoff this season.

Dec 30, 2023; Atlanta, GA, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin runs on the field before a game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels are focused on their opening game against the Furman Paladins on Saturday night, but the eyes of analysts are already on the College Football Playoff.

On Saturday morning, the crew of "Big Noon Kickoff" on FOX chose a team who they think will make its debut in the playoff this season as well as a pick for the national champion. Although the Rebels were not chosen to win it all by any of the panelists, two of them did pick Ole Miss to make their first appearance in the playoff this year, and both of them have SEC ties.

The first one to pick Ole Miss to reach the playoff was former head coach Urban Meyer who spent time with the Florida Gators and Ohio State Buckeyes. He believes that the Rebels have amassed enough talent in the portal to have an advantage in many of their games this season.

"I'm going Portal King, Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss," Meyer said. "He's going to debut in the playoff. It's amazing, the best conference in college football, I think they might be 11-of-12 games favored."

The second analyst who picked Ole Miss to reach the playoff was former Alabama running back Mark Ingram, but the portal was not his biggest talking point. Instead, it was the quarterback position.

"Coach talked about them, I've got Ole Miss," Ingram said. "Matt, you say you have to have a quarterback to make a run at the playoff, and they have a quarterback. Jaxson Dart, Jaxson throws darts from the pocket and on the run. He has talent all around him. I've got Ole Miss making their debut in the playoff."

Kiffin has talked about guarding against this brand of "rat poison" surrounding the Rebels this offseason. Ole Miss has been widely projected to reach the new 12-team playoff this year, but he is hoping to keep his roster focused on the task at hand. On Saturday, that means the FCS Furman Paladins.

"I do get concerned, obviously," Kiffin said earlier this month. "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."

Ole Miss and Furman are scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, and the game will be televised on SEC Network+.