Ole Miss was destined to fall in the College Football Playoff rankings as soon as the final seconds ticked off the clock in Saturday’s 42-7 loss to Georgia.
The only question was how far the Rebels would fall.
We now have that answer.
Ole Miss dropped nine spots to No. 19 in the updated CFP rankings released Tuesday night, leaving the Rebels well outside the 12-team playoff field.
But while that answers one question, it raises an even bigger one.
Does Ole Miss still have a realistic chance of making the College Football Playoff?
Technically, yes.
But as expected, the Rebels are going to need some help.
A lot of help.
To put it simply, Ole Miss needs chaos. It needs upsets. It needs several teams ahead of it in the rankings to stumble over the final weeks of the regular season.
Most importantly, it needs to win its final three games. Even that might not be enough.
The Rebels likely need to climb to at least No. 11 in the rankings over the next few weeks to have a realistic shot at making the playoff.
Remember, this season’s playoff still has 12 teams, but one spot is reserved for the highest-ranked Group of 6 team. That means being ranked No. 12 might not be good enough. Even No. 11 isn’t necessarily a guarantee, depending on how the conference championship races unfold.
But getting there will be difficult, even if Ole Miss does to Oklahoma and Mississippi State what Georgia did to the Rebels last Saturday night in Oxford.
And no, not even beating Wofford 100-0 would do much to improve the Rebels’ playoff résumé.
Oklahoma is 5-4 and has struggled enough that it already fired its offensive coordinator. Mississippi State looked promising early in the season before falling off a cliff, and losing quarterback Kamario Taylor to a season-ending injury certainly hasn’t helped.
The point is that Ole Miss doesn’t have any opportunities for the kind of signature win that could convince the committee to overlook its three losses.
Other teams still have those opportunities, though.
And that’s the problem.
The Rebels need to climb eight spots in the rankings, but their remaining schedule doesn’t offer much of an opportunity to make that happen on their own.
Instead, they’ll need the right combination of upsets, losses and other teams falling out of contention.
That’s a lot to hope for, even in the wildest of college football seasons.
College Football Playoff Rankings
- Georgia (8-1)
- Utah (9-0)
- Alabama (7-2)
- UCLA (9-0)
- Notre Dame (8-1)
- Texas (7-2)
- Miami (8-1)
- Tennessee (7-2)
- Indiana (8-1)
- BYU (7-2)
- Kentucky (7-2)
- Texas Tech (8-1)
- Wake Forest (8-1)
- Houston (7-2)
- Iowa (7-2)
- Oregon (6-3)
- South Carolina (6-3)
- USC (7-2)
- Ole Miss (6-3)
- Ohio State (6-3)
- LSU (6-3)
- Missouri (6-3)
- Arizona
- Boise State
- Oklahoma State (6-3)
