The Ole Miss Rebels were flying high — literally — on and off the field prior to their Week 13 loss to Florida. But after handling their business in Week 14 in the Egg Bowl, the Rebels had high hopes going into the next College Football Playoff Rankings.
With a resume that stacks up against the best of them, does Ole Miss have a legitimate shot at the playoffs now after landing with the No. 13 overall ranking?
Ole Miss Playoff Odds
According to the College Football Playoff Meter powered by our Playoff Predictor, the Rebels had just a 4.67% chance to make the playoffs. That was, of course, before landing with the No. 13th overall ranking by the college football playoff selection committee.
And now, with that 13th overall ranking and the rest of the teams set in front of them, one thing is clear: Ole Miss didn’t get the benefit of the doubt and their postseason hopes are likely over.
Here’s how that works. In order to classify for one of the seven at-large bids in the College Football Playoffs this year, a team was going to have to rank in the top 11 overall seeds.
That’s because the winner of the Big 12 currently sits outside of the top 12 spots as Iowa State was ranked 16th and Arizona State ranked 15th. No matter what, one of those teams is going to find themselves in the playoffs as the Big 12 Champion, meaning the at-large spots have to come from the top 11 seeds.
With Alabama landing at No. 11 and Miami landing at No. 12, it’s clear that the Rebels are going to be found wanting more and left out in the cold this year.
Alabama is the last team in during this scenario, landing in the playoffs as a likely road team, perhaps playing in South Bend against Notre Dame. Ole Miss, however, isn’t even the last team out.
The honor of being the last team out goes to the Miami Hurricanes after they lost to Syracuse and were eliminated from the ACC Championship Game a week ago. Miami was ranked 12th in this last iteration before the playoff seeds and now is subject to missing the postseason altogether.
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That also just means that the Rebels are basically done as well. The playoff seeds and the at-large bids are not final, but the Rebels don’t have a scenario in which they jump up two ranking spots that they would need in order to leapfrog any of the other teams in line for an at-large bid.
Thanks to a late-season loss to the Florida Gators, the Rebels are now just simply going bowling.
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