Lane Kiffin makes his pitch for Ole Miss to get a New Year's Six bowl
STARKVILLE, Miss. — The proverbial hay is in the barn and Ole Miss is sitting at the end of the 2023 regular season with 10 wins for only the second time in program history after its Egg Bowl win on Thursday.
The first time the Rebels achieved this feat was two years ago after beating this same Mississippi State team on Thanksgiving night to cap Lane Kiffin’s second season at Ole Miss. That season concluded with a trip back to the New Year’s Six and the Sugar Bowl for the first time in six season.
History repeated itself again this Thanksgiving, but will that trend continue in the postseason? This is the not-so-million dollar question.
For starters it is not all in the hands of No. 12 Ole Miss who sit 10-2 with a 6-2 record in the Southeastern Conference, the exact same record it had to punch its ticket to New Orleans.
Kiffin and the Rebels did its part by winning its last two games after the loss at No. 1 Georgia earlier this month. But now Ole Miss needs help from others as it props its feet up and enjoys the rest of the holiday weekend.
After defeating Mississippi State Kiffin was asked how he would pitch Ole Miss to the College Football Playoffs selection committee on why they should be a NY6 participant
“I’m not going to go on a very long one because one, I call all my coach buddies and it doesn’t work,” Kiffin said. “They all do it and they start at, like, midseason. …With this they’re not going to listen to me and say, ‘Oh, that’s a good point coach Kiffin made. Move them up, put them in a New Year’s Six.’
“I think this one’s a pretty good argument where you went 10-2. Super hard schedule but you’re two losses are at Alabama and Georgia. The two people going to the SEC (title game), playing as well as anybody, at their place. I’d like to see the other 10-2 people and their losses and I would doubt their losses are going to be harder ones than those two places to play.”
Still, the Rebels have kept themselves in the New Year’s Six conversation since beating Texas A&M on November 4. The loss to the Bulldogs did not seem to hurt their chances as it felt like a freebie game. That is until Missouri continued to win.
The Tigers leapfrogged Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff Rankings, sitting at No. 9, and currently 9-2. They play at Arkansas on Friday and Ole Miss is now the biggest Arkansas fan.
A loss in Fayetteville probably puts Ole Miss the second SEC team in the pecking order behind Alabama if going with the theory that Georgia gets in the CFP. A Missouri win all but shuts the door, though a Louisville loss in the ACC title game or Florida State still getting into the CFP.
Penn State losing to Michigan State this weekend seems like a long shot as well.
