Ole Miss and the College Football Playoff roadmap

As we know by now, our Ole Miss Rebels have debuted at No. 10 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings. Last season was the only year the Rebels have made the playoffs and they debuted at No. 6 and never dropped below No. 7.

Some important things to note as we explore the path for Ole Miss is the one and two loss teams they are ahead of and the two loss teams they are behind.

Alabama and Texas are ahead of Ole Miss with two losses of their own. Texas has the head-to-head victory while Bama was one of the more puzzling placements. The tide have a home loss to Georgia and an ugly road loss against Tennessee. Texas has a really bad loss to Oklahoma and a home loss to Florida. The Rebels have the blowout road loss (with context) to Florida and a road loss, with injuries, to Texas. So Ole Miss is the only one not to lose at home of the three.

What is important to note is that a 7-1 BYU team is only one spot ahead and 8-0 UCLA is just two spots ahead. One loss by either of those schools will mean a lot.

The standings directly behind the Rebels looks like this:

11. Notre Dame (7-1)

12. Ohio State (6-2)

13. Tennessee (6-2)

14. LSU (6-2)

15. Texas Tech (7-1)

16. Wake Forest (7-1)

17. Houston (6-2)

18. Missouri (6-2)

The CFP Roadmap

Route 1: Pretty straight forward, win out and win the SEC Championship and likely receive a bye.

Route 2: Win out but not be in the SEC title game (Texas vs Bama), and host a first round game.

Route 3: Lose to anyone not named Georgia and all hope is gone.

Route 4: “Quality loss” to Georgia. So don’t get blown out.

This is where we will spend the time looking at how a loss to Georgia isn’t the end:

1. Georgia finishes 11-1 and wins the SEC Championship. (Still have to play Mizzou and South Carolina).
2. Kentucky loses two more games, preferably to Louisville and Florida. Also have Tennessee and Missouri remaining.
3. UCLA dropping two games. They have to travel to Minnesota and Michigan while hosting Illinois and USC.
4. BYU loses to Utah
5. Notre Dame loses to Miami
6. Florida wins out
7. Tennessee to beat LSU but lose to Texas A&M
8. LSU beats Bama but loses to Tennessee

Missouri is a wild card in all of this because of their potential to rack up some big resume wins. They play Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma. Their next three games are against current top 7 teams. If they win two of those and beat Oklahoma, the head-to-head may be the only thing saving Ole Miss at that point, especially since it was dominant.

I am not saying all of these things MUST happen, but if we happen to drop the Georgia game, these things would go a long way to keeping hope alive!