CFP committee chair says Lane Kiffin situation was not discussed in rankings meeting after Week 13
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College Football Playoff committee chairman Hunter Yurachek was going to be asked the Lane Kiffin question on Tuesday night after the new CFP rankings reveal dropped Kiffin’s Ole Miss team 1 spot to No. 7.
Ole Miss didn’t even play in Week 13, so there was no reason to drop the Rebels 1 spot because of a shaky performance against a lesser team. The Rebels were 10-1 before last weekend and 10-1 afterward as Tuesday’s 4th Playoff rankings approached. Even moving Ole Miss down from No. 6 to No. 7 begged the question to Yurachek about if the Kiffin coaching saga about his possible departure from Oxford had anything to do with the Rebels being dropped in the rankings.
Yurachek was ready with a reply for ESPN host Rece Davis, and he basically said there was nothing to see here regarding the Kiffin rumors and his team’s new placing in the rankings.
“We didn’t have any discussion about Ole Miss and their coach,” Yurachek said. “That was all about Oregon and their performance against USC.”
Oregon was mighty impressive in Week 13, taking down the Trojans, 42-27, in Eugene in a matchup with heavy Playoff implications. The Ducks were rewarded on Tuesday night by moving up 1 spot to No. 6, so the Ducks and Rebels switched places in the rankings, but not because of what many were thinking, assured Yurachek.
Yurachek was asked if the Playoff committee would even be able to take Kiffin’s possible departure into account when assessing Ole Miss and its ranking.
“It’s in the protocol, but I’m not sure we will have a data point to use that as part of the protocol. … We would not have seen the team play without the coach,” Yurachek explained.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
