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    • Mississippi misses chance at College Football Playoff after loss at Florida
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    Mississippi misses chance at College Football Playoff after loss at Florida

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    Anyone currently pushing for Mississippi to be in the College Football Playoff is on the Southeastern Conference payroll or wants to be at some point in the future.

    That’s the truth, as plain and simple as it can be after the Rebels blew away the best opportunity in their program’s history on Saturday, losing 24-17 at Florida.

    No SEC championship game.

    No play-off.

    Nothing but a New Year’s trip to Orlando or something like that, which will require everyone in the program to pretend they’re honored and happy to be there.

    And considering the vaunted name, image and likeness Lane Kiffin had to work with this year, it’s nothing short of a huge program-wide stranglehold. Do you want to play with the big boys after all these years? Fine, go ahead.

    But you better take care of your affairs. Instead, Ole Miss bungled and put together one of the most disappointing and confusing seasons they’ve ever had.

    With all the hype, all the talent, all the momentum behind Kiffin after they dominated Georgia two weeks ago, are you really going to tell me the Rebels couldn’t do better than 5-for-18 on third and fourth down against Florida? team left for dead weeks ago?

    We can break down all the mistakes Ole Miss made in this game, from Kiffin’s stubbornness in handing the ball to defensive tackle JJ Pegues at point-blank range to a missed 34-yard field goal to a muffed punt return that gave Florida three points for the quarterback Jaxson Dart refuses to tighten his chin strap. There are many things Kiffin will regret.

    But the bottom line is quite simple. No team with losses to Florida, LSU and Kentucky should be within a mile of the playoff. And the worst part for Kiffin is that it was so avoidable.

    Yes, the SEC is tough. So what? We’re in a new era here with the 12-team playoffs. In a league like the SEC, you can survive losses, especially if you also have good wins.

    However, there must be a limit. Three is just too many.

    Florida is playing well toward the end of the season, but a true playoff team heads to Gainesville and takes care of a Florida team that just got its sixth win.

    LSU is a big brand name with a lot of talent, but the Tigers are 6-4 and just not very good.

    Kentucky is almost certainly not going to a bowl game.

    If any of these three games had gone the other way, Ole Miss almost certainly would have found itself in the 12-team field. The Georgia win was so valuable, and beating South Carolina 27-3 is one of the more underrated great performances of the season considering how good the Gamecocks have been otherwise.

    And at some point there will be a three-loss team in the expanded playoff. Maybe even this year.

    But it shouldn’t be Ole Miss. It can’t be Ole Miss, not when those losses all came against average or worse opponents.

    You have to point the finger at Kiffin. Yes, he has significantly improved the rebels’ program. But his performances in the really important games that define seasons have been questionable for years. After the victory in Georgia, that story began to change. If Ole Miss had simply defeated Florida and Mississippi State, it would have all but clinched its spot. And Kiffin might have been the most important figure in the modern history of Ole Miss football.

    Maybe one day he will be. But this year it won’t be like that.

    For Ole Miss to implode and miss the playoff with such a stacked roster when most of the hard work has been done is a crushing disappointment.

    It’s also a gift to the likes of Indiana and Tennessee. The way the Hoosiers were defeated 38-15 by Ohio State certainly portrays their resurgence a little differently. They haven’t looked good at all and will end the season without any notable wins. But assuming they beat Purdue 1-10 next week, there’s little chance the committee can drop them below Ole Miss.

    The Vols can also benefit from developments in Gainesville. The first team eliminated this week is in a much better position heading into next Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt, according to the committee.

    SEC homers will no doubt argue that both the Vols and Rebels should be there. Already this week, commissioner Greg Sankey took to social media to share some powerful schedule data as he began his public lobbying efforts to increase support for SEC teams.

    And while the SEC is probably the best and deepest conference, you’d have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to conclude that the parity we’ve seen is proof that there are great teams out there. What’s closer to the truth is that the SEC has some pretty good, but deeply flawed teams, whose inconsistencies often crop up.

    The SEC will argue in the coming weeks that the depth of the league means they should all be in the playoffs. The committee should not and will not fall for it. Sorry, Ole Miss. But you’re gone.

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