ESPN's Bill Connelly assesses College Football Playoff chances for Missouri, Ole Miss in 2024

With the College Football Playoff set to expand to 12 teams in 2024, Missouri and Ole Miss are among the many teams hoping to contend for a spot. ESPN college football analyst Bill Connelly likes the chances for both.

Neither the Tigers nor Rebels ever made the CFP in the four-team format, but both would have made the field if the 12-team tournament had been approved in 2023. Based on both what they return and their schedules, Connelly explained on The Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday that he sees a path to the Playoff for each team.

“Even on paper, they were top 10 or 12 teams last year,” he said. “Missouri’s borderline top 30 in that returning production figure. They return a lot of the reasons why they were good last year and I think the most important thing to keep in mind when I looked at schedule strengths back in December, they have easily the two easiest schedules in the conference next year on paper. You think about what that means. Good teams returning a lot of experience and having an opportunity to seize easier schedules than everybody else. That’s a great place to be in.”

Missouri came in at No. 31 in Connelly’s returning production rankings, while Ole Miss ranks No. 68. That is good for third and 10th among the 16 SEC teams. The Tigers also avoid playing Georgia next season after having lost 10 straight games to the Bulldogs. Similarly, Ole Miss will not play Alabama to which it has dropped eight straight.

Both teams return their starting quarterbacks from this past season. Brady Cook led Mizzou to an 11-2 record and Cotton Bowl victory while throwing for 3,317 yards, 21 touchdowns and six interceptions. Jaxson Dart put up similarly impressive numbers for Ole Miss to finish with 3,364 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also rushed for 389 yards and eight more TDs.

Cook returns his top receiver in Luther Burden, while Dart has a new weapon in former South Carolina wideout Juice Wells. There’s still several months to go before any actual football is played, but right now both Missouri and Ole Miss are looking like Playoff teams.

“Missouri was 4-0 in one-score games,” Connelly said. “That’s something that’s hard to duplicate, but a lot of those wins came early before they improved. So I think both of them have legit top 10 potential and when we say that now, what we mean is they have at-large Playoff bid potential as well. I think they’re absolutely in that mix.”