Who would have thought that after clinching a playoff spot, Ole Miss would find itself on the brink of losing it altogether? Lane Kiffin’s move to LSU will certainly harm its playoff chances, as the uncertainty in the program might trigger the committee’s selection rules. A team without a clear leader is a team inviting doubt.

With the strength of the schedule and head-to-head competition, the playoff committee also evaluates teams based on the unavailability of key players and coaches that may or will affect teams’ pre- and postseason performance. In that case, Ole Miss’s remarkable 11-1 season will end on a bitter note.

This situation dates back to 2023, when the playoff committee removed undefeated Florida State from the playoffs and elevated one-loss SEC champion Alabama after FSU’s quarterback Jordan Travis’s injury. That situation can pretty much affect Ole Miss, too. But the only difference will be that this time it won’t be because of injury.

Now, Ole Miss did have a chance to stop this situation from escalating if their athletic director, Keith Carter, had agreed to Kiffin’s plea to lead the Rebels till the playoffs. But no workable arrangement emerged. Kiffin ultimately accepted the school’s decision not to keep him on through the playoffs, but that choice leaves Ole Miss heading into the CFP picture without the coach who got them there. And with the postseason approaching, the Rebels’ stability and their playoff standing now rest on a thin thread.

But the situation might be a bit different this time, as with a four-team playoff system, the committee didn’t have much of a choice. That’s exactly why Florida State was left out of the race with key issues. But this time, with a 12-team playoff bracket, Ole Miss might get a thin margin and enter the game. Even ESPN’s CFP expert Heather Dinich highlighted the same.

“Ole Miss without Lane Kiffin is not going to fall out of the College Football Playoff. Might they drop a spot or two because they don’t have their head coach? Yes, that’s possible.” Dinich said. “The best comparison is to go back to what happened with Florida State. But (that) was only a four-team playoff.”

With Ole Miss’s playoff fate hanging in a big question mark, Lane Kiffin explains the reason behind his move.

Lane Kiffin makes the real reason behind his move clear

Lane Kiffin joins the LSU Tigers with a massive success record of 14 seasons with a 117-53 record. He had seven 10-win seasons and led his team to nine bowl appearances. And his teams have ranked in the final AP poll five times. That success is enough to explain why LSU is spending $12-13 million per year for seven years for him. But Lane Kiffin made it pretty clear that money wasn’t the driving force in his move to LSU. He credits it to the advice he got from his mentor, Pete Carroll.

“I talked to some mentors, Coach Carroll and Coach Saban. Coach Carroll said, ‘You’re dad would tell you to go, man. Take the shot. You’ve accomplished a lot here,” Kiffin said to ESPN’s Marty Smith.

Kiffin explains how his move is more personal rather than just a football-driven move. And how he’s planning to show it once he reaches Baton Rouge.

“It’s just something that I prayed on,” Kiffin said. “Maybe it’s right, maybe it’s wrong, but I think, a lot of the time, you just go prove things right. And that’s what we’re going to do when we get there.”

Another big reason that worked as a driving force for Kiffin was his one-year tenure with Tennessee and how he couldn’t do much for the team before leaving for USC. He had already worked for six seasons as an assistant before landing his first head coaching job at the Oakland Raiders in 2007. But for Ole Miss, he did enough, which pushed him to look for other opportunities.

Now, with all of that, let’s wait and see if Lane Kiffin can lead LSU to a championship berth next season or not.