Heading into the Egg Bowl week, College Football Committee chair Hunter Yurachek put a major tension in Ole Miss to bed.
With Lane Kiffin taking his sweet time to decide between LSU, Florida, and the Rebels, there have been talks of the CFP committee docking a Kiffin-less Ole Miss out of the Playoff.
Yurachek put the Rebel Nation's anxiety at ease by squashing the assumption.
“We didn’t have any discussion about Ole Miss and their coach,” Yurachek said in his media appearance following the release of fourth edition of CFP rankings.
“That was all about Oregon and their performance against USC. Their strength of schedule continues to climb. They’ve been dominant on the offense and defensive side of the ball. Really good on special teams, and the committee has been waiting for them to have a signature win to really put them where we thought they deserved to be.”
When ESPN's Rece Davis further pressed Yurachek about the possibility of Ole Miss playing without their head coach, he explained how the selection criteria does include the availability of players and coaches for teams when the committee discusses those teams.
“It is in the protocol but I’m not sure we will have a data point to use that as part of the protocol,” Yurachek said.
“We would not have seen the team play without a coach.”
The Rebels fell a spot to No. 7 in the fourth edition of CFP rankings from their position last week, as Oregon took place at No.6.
Now that Yurachek's clarification puts part of the tension to rest, and Ole Miss continues being in the Top 10, the Rebels fans can actually anticipate what's to come in the Playoff, with or without Kiffin.
Nevertheless, Kiffin's decision would still have everyone invested; just that it won't have the Playoff-level implication fans feared it would.