Why CFP committee didn't penalize Ole Miss in rankings after Lane Kiffin left

OXFORD — The College Football Playoff committee lays out in its selection criteria that key players or coaches being absent will be factored in to the CFP rankings.

Why, then, did Ole Miss football jump up one place from No. 7 to No. 6 in the latest CFP polls released Dec. 2 after losing coach Lane Kiffin to LSU?

Hunter Yurachek, the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee, said that his team has no way to assess Kiffin's value on the sideline.

"It's impossible for us, at this time as a committee, to evaluate what the impact is of losing your head coach," Yurachek said. "Specifically Ole Miss, because we don't have a game that we can compare Ole Miss with Lane Kiffin vs. without him."

Ole Miss promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding to replace Kiffin. The Rebels further stabilized the roster when offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., who will follow Kiffin to LSU, confirmed he will stay with Ole Miss through the CFP.

If Ole Miss finishes No. 5-8 in the final poll, the Rebels would host a first-round game Dec. 19 or 20.

The Rebels missing the SEC Championship Game could end up helping their playoff seed.

If Auburn had won the Iron Bowl against Alabama, the Rebels would be playing in the conference title game against Georgia on Dec. 6.

A poor showing against the Bulldogs would have given the committee a reason to bump the Rebels down in the final rankings Dec. 7. Lacking evidence that Ole Miss will struggle without Kiffin, Yurachek said his absence was hardly part of the discussion.

"Without that data point, it really did not become part of our thought process in how we evaluated Ole Miss this week," Yurachek said.

Yurachek was pressed on why the CFP committee has lowered rankings for teams that may be without key players or coaches if it will not consider the absence without a data point.

"We don't have any way to evaluate what Ole Miss looks like, plays like without their head coach," Yurachek said. "It looks like they stabilized that program by appointing their defensive coordinator as head coach.

"Their offensive coordinator, we were told, was going to come back and call the plays. We can only evaluate what we know, and what we know is Ole Miss is an 11-1 football team."

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at [email protected] or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Why losing Lane Kiffin didn't hurt Ole Miss in latest CFP rankings