Ole Miss is just over 24 hours away from the Egg Bowl. They need a big win, and hope chaos unfolds on Saturday for a chance to be ranked inside the top 12. Yesterday, Lane Kiffin took shots at the ACC and Big 12 Conferences, not happy with their strength of schedule.
Kiffin's point is valid. However, it's not in their hands because they failed to beat Florida in Week 13 and lost to Kentucky and LSU. Winning just one of those games means they are a top-12 team, and fingers need to be pointed closer to home than anywhere else.
Kiffin is kind of right, but pointing fingers won't change the rankings
Lane Kiffin is right about the strength of schedule when he compared Alabama and Clemson. The Crimson Tide have played a much more demanding schedule than the Tigers, with Bama having one more loss. However, Georgia smacked Clemson around in Week 1, while Alabama beat the Bulldogs. So why is Clemson one spot above them?
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin gave his opinion on the conferences and spoke about Clemson.
“To think that you’re looking at schools and you’re talking about, like, Clemson’s schedule and who they played over Alabama. It’s stupid. … I’m not gonna name them. Take some of those teams that are up there that haven’t played anybody and put them down in the SEC, they’re .500 teams.”
College Football Playoff rankings have always been questionable, even when it was four teams. The Florida State scenario didn't make sense last year, and despite going 13-0, they missed out. It looked like the playoff selection committee favored getting an SEC team in.
Kiffin will always give his opinion, and there could be an underlying reason, or sometimes he's just being Lane. However, if his comments are to get the selection committee to think the SEC schedule is more demanding and, therefore, put them in over other conference teams, that isn't happening.