Championship Weekend is here, which means Selection Sunday is as well. While the Rebels missed the chance to play for the SEC title, thanks to the Auburn wide receivers not able to catch or hang on to the football, there is still plenty of interest for Ole Miss and its fans.
Friday Night
Troy @ #25 James Madison 6:00 ESPN
Kennesaw State @ Jacksonville State 6:00 CBSSN
#24 North Texas @ #20 Tulane 7:00 ABC
UNLV @ Boise State 7:00 Fox
There are a few things to pay attention to tonight. First and foremost, the winner of the North Texas/Tulane game has a really good chance to be the first round opponent for Ole Miss barring pure chaos. The committee said inactive teams can move up or down in the final pole, so a Tulane win would boost the Rebel resume.
James Madison has an outside shot at making the play offs as a 12 seed if Duke wins the ACC Championship on Saturday. The Dukes, soon to be led by Sun Belt Billy, could be an opponent of Ole Miss if some chaos ensued and Ole Miss moved up to #5.
Yes, Billy Napier is the new coach at James Madison whiles North Texas and Tulane are both playing with coaches leaving their programs for P4 jobs. Memphis has been linked to both Dan Mullen at UNLV and Jerry Mack at Kennesaw State.
Saturday Slate
#11 BYU @ #4 Texas Tech 11:00 am ABC
#3 Georgia @ #9 Alabama 3:00 pm ABC
#2 Indiana @ #1 Ohio State 7:00 pm Fox
Duke @ #17 Virginia 7:00 pm ABC
All three games aired by ABC are of interest to Ole Miss. The first scenario is everything just goes to chalk which would lead to the Rebels likely playing host to Virginia. It’s if things don’t go to chalk where it gets really interesting.
The committee has basically said they are putting Alabama in by putting them at nine ahead of Notre Dame and if they push the Tide out after losing a conference championship game, this might be the last weekend the SEC ever plays that game. It would not be the end of them all together because it matters for conferences like the BIG 12 and ACC where the winner is clearly in and the loser is clearly out.
The scenario for the Rebs to move up to the five seed is most likely a possibility with a Texas Tech loss to BYU. Then Ole Miss gets either the AAC Champ, Duke if they win and James Madison loses or James Madison if they and Duke both win.
If Georgia were to lose to Alabama, things get interesting. Does a two-loss Georgia have to move behind a two loss Alabama that beat them twice? Do they move behind the one-loss Ole Miss team they beat? My guess is that Georgia would drop to seven, Alabama moves up to six and if Texas Tech loses, there’s a real possibility that Ole Miss slides into the four with the top 3 teams being BIG 10 squads.
The loser of the BIG 10 title game is not going to slide out of the top 4 so that game has little impact beyond who the Rebels would potentially match up with in the second round.
My advice? Root for BYU and then chalk. It will knock Notre Dame out of the playoff and likely give the Rebels the 5 seed, a game against the AAC champs and a second round matchup against an overrated Oregon squad.
