Ole Miss' Unlikely Maze to the CFB Playoff

Path to the Playoff

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium

The Ole Miss Rebels(7-2, 4-1 SEC) need to win out and need some help from other teams in order to sneak in the CFB Playoff. There are a few schools the Rebels will need to cheer for and cheer against in these next few weeks, but obviously, the main goal for the Rebels is to win their next game. The #18 Rebels have a while to go before they will even be considered for the top 4, but if this debate continues throughout the end of the month into December, that means Ole Miss will be the 2015 SEC Champion. 

First of all, Ole Miss needs to beat likely Florida in the SEC Championship, a win which may cancel out a loss in the committee's eyes. A win over Alabama, LSU, and the SEC East Champion would be very attractive.

In this weekend's LSU at Alabama game, Ole Miss would like LSU to win for this reason: if LSU wins, they will likely move to number 1, and if Ole Miss beats the number 1 team, then we will go even higher up the rankings. Ole Miss needs some help in the Pac-12 also. The Big 12 and Big Ten should be the two locks for teams getting into the playoff with Ohio State, Michigan State, TCU, Baylor, and Iowa in there. A two-loss SEC team with great wins like the Rebels could have should be above a one-loss team from the other conferences in the Power 5.

Also, Ole Miss needs Florida State to win this weekend over Clemson. With as weak as the ACC is, the committee should leave any one-loss ACC team out in my opinion. Clemson would need to run the table to get into the playoff most likely because of their strength of schedule being so low in that weak conference.

Additionally, the Stanford-ND winner will be key. The winner of that game would likely be given a spot in the playoff, and the Rebels need all of the eliminations they can get. Stanford's hardest game behind ND is California, and ND's toughest opponent behind the Cardinal is at Pittsburgh. 

Lastly, Memphis would need to lose a game to eliminate them. Memphis' only shot of getting in would be running the table because no non-power 5 one-loss team would EVER get in. The committee would likely give Memphis head-to-head over Ole Miss if they were to both run the table, so the Rebels are cheering for Memphis opponents.

As Ole Miss fans, we just need to cheer our Rebels on to a hopeful and unlikely SEC Championship, and we just need to pray everything else falls in the right place. I know the playoff is VERY unlikely for the Rebels, but all we can do is hope that God blesses the Rebels with some magic and upsets around the country.