No. 14 Ole Miss just missed out on a spot in the new 12-team College Football Playoff, but has a chance tonight to show why the Rebels should’ve been in the playoff.
Ole Miss (9-3) is set face Duke (9-3) in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Thursday night on ESPN2 (30 minutes later than originally planned after the Sugar Bowl playoff game was rescheduled). The Rebels are favored to beat the Blue Devils, which would help alleviate some of the SEC criticism.
The conference where “it just means more” has faltered on the sport’s biggest stages in the last week. Alabama lost to Michigan. Oklahoma lost to Navy. Texas A&M lost to USC. South Carolina lost to Illinois. Tennessee got steamrolled by Ohio State. Georgia (without starting quarterback Carson Beck) lost to Notre Dame. Texas had to go into double overtime to beat Arizona State.
That’s a lot of bowl game losses for what’s considered to be the best conference in the country. But the Rebels have a chance to join LSU (defeated Baylor), Missouri (defeated Iowa), Arkansas (defeated Texas Tech) and Vanderbilt (defeated Georgia Tech) as bowl game winners.
And, of course, Texas still has a chance to end the season with an SEC team on top of the college football mountain.
The Rebels will take on the Duke Blue Devils tonight at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
