The CFP committee ranking Texas Tech at No. 6, and dropping the Ole Miss Rebels a spot to No. 7 elicited a bag of mixed responses.
On one side of the debate were the ones who backed-up Texas tech's dominant win over BYU as a fair reason to give them a Top 6 spot over an SEC team with a much-tougher strength of schedule than them.
While the others were furious with the CFP committee for favoring the eye-test over the strength of schedule. Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin picked the latter side without any hesitation.
More importantly, he bluntly called out the CFP committee for not rewarding, or even appreciating, the strength of schedule enough.
"I have talked extensively about that, well before we ever went to nine games and how — unless it was guaranteed that it was going to be a critical, critical factor in the rankings and who makes the playoffs, going to nine games will do nothing but hurt us in the SEC," Kiffin fired away, per Michael Katz.
The recent firings in college football, and their direct correlation with the program's strength of schedules, further ticked off Kiffin.
Lane Kiffin says tougher strengths of schedule gets HCs fired
"And I'm not the guy that says that after it was done, I said that well before. Shoot, strength of schedule really hasn't proved to help you in the rankings. But what it will do is get you fired."
On today’s SEC call, @Lane_Kiffin was asked about Ole Miss dropping in the latest CFP rankings and strength of schedule metrics. He was also asked about the nine-game SEC slate & SoS discussions.
— Michael Katz (@MichaelLKatz) November 12, 2025
“So, I guess ... it doesn’t help you in the rankings, but it helps you get fired.” pic.twitter.com/2zQbJCTiA5
"Because five of the Top-10 strengths of schedule this season — so those people that wanted these really hard schedules and they are going to get harder with nine games — five of those 10 have fired their head coaches. So I guess it doesn't help you in the rankings but it does help you get fired."
ON3's Pete Nakos explained how all the high-profile firings of 2025: James Franklin, Billy Napier, Brian Kelly, Hugh Freeze, and Sam Pittman, were closely related to their former school's SOS.
A wild stat I came across tonight while looking at CFP/Strength of Schedule metrics. 5 of the top 10 in SOS have fired their head coach this season.
— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos) November 12, 2025
1. Florida (Billy Napier)
3. LSU (Brian Kelly)
5. Auburn (Hugh Freeze)
7. Arkansas (Sam Pittman)
10. Penn State (James Franklin) https://t.co/ljRnzrhUFf
All these schools' SOS, Penn State, LSU, Auburn, Florida, and Arkansas, rank among the Top 10.
As for Ole Miss and Texas Tech, everything from odds to SOS metrics favors the Rebels over the Red Raiders.
Per both ESPN's FPI and Jeff Sagarin, Ole Miss's SOS has consistently ranked as 23 or 24 nationally, while Texas Tech falls in the middle pack between 58 to 75.
Kiffin's, and Ole Miss fans' frustration CFP committee still prioritizing eye tests is only fair.