Lane Kiffin agonizes over Ole Miss snub in CFP rankings
CFP ranking aggravation is becoming as American as apple pie. But no one’s more incensed than Lane Kiffin.
Ole Miss’ head coach tore into the CFP selection committee on Wednesday morning after the penultimate rankings revealed his 9-3 Rebels came in at No. 13 — one spot shy of the top-12 and likely on the outside-looking-in when the inaugural expanded 12-team playoffs kick off in two weeks.
“You guys actually meet for days and come up with these rankings??” Kiffin wrote on X. “Do you actually watch the quality of players, teams, and road environments (we played in one of yours this year) or just try and make the ACC feel relevant?? [By the way], one of your teams paid us not to play again next year.”
That team would be Wake Forest for a reported sum of $750,000.
After Ole Miss squashed Wake Forest 40-6 in Winston-Salem in mid-September, Demon Deacons brass made the “business decision” to buy their way out of the 2025 iteration of the home-and-home series, which would have taken place at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss.
Kiffin’s question-mark-riddled-rant continued, his focus shifting to another ACC team, the Miami Hurricanes, who came in one spot ahead of his Rebels in the latest rankings.
“Same #12 spot you guys had Clemson ranked [as] last week. How did that go against the SEC??? Rewatch [Georgia versus] Clemson closely if you want a reminder of the two conferences.”
(For others who need a reminder: the Bulldogs throttled the Tigers 34-3 in Week 1 of the 2024 season.)
Despite his ethos- pathos- logos-laden appeal, Kiffin’s Rebels are likely done for the season.
Only championship games remain before the selection committee draws up the playoff bracket, and because the Rebels missed out on the SEC title game, it’s hard to see how they’d move up the ladder in the next seven days.
Kiffin can take solace in the fact that neither the 4-8 Demon Deacons nor the 10-2 Hurricanes will likely make the playoffs either.
Despite Miami’s top-12 ranking, because of the way the playoffs are formatted — the five highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic qualifications — No. 15 Arizona State or No. 16 Iowa State will claim the final playoff berth by virtue of winning the Big 12.
If the Rebels had managed to overcome Florida or LSU or Kentucky — the same Wildcats who lost eight times in 2024 and finished 1-7 in conference play — Kiffin wouldn’t be cursing the high heavens in the first place.
But, of course, every team can play that game. Miami’s athletic director Dan Radakovich hasn’t shied away from making his thoughts known, but had Miami taken care of business at Syracuse on Saturday, the AD would still be lifting the U.
In the words of ACC conference commissioner Jim Phillips, “As we look ahead to the final rankings, we hope the Committee will reconsider and put a deserving [insert your preferred team here] in the field.”
Just don’t hold your breath.
