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Lane Kiffin mocks Warde Manuel for saying selection committee values strength-of-schedule after SEC snubs
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Lane Kiffin is never one to hide from saying controversial things or being sarcastic, especially on a day like Sunday when his Ole Miss team was left out of the 12-team College Football Playoff.
Naturally, Kiffin was upset about the Rebels not making the Playoff field. But his reaction to Playoff committee chair Warde Manuel’s statement on strength-of-schedule also had everything to do with the omission of the SEC’s other 3-loss teams like Alabama and South Carolina.
“I want to make sure everybody understands that we value strength of schedule,” Manuel told ESPN’s Rece Davis during Sunday’s Playoff Selection Show.
That really got Kiffin riled up, considering a team like SMU got in with a weaker strength-of-schedule than his team, Alabama and South Carolina, who all face an SEC gauntlet that SMU does not.
Here’s Kiffin’s response on social media to that Manuel quote:
Is this fake news??? he didn’t actually really say that …. @AlabamaFTBL @SMUFB https://t.co/APxNx1xXJZ
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 8, 2024
Kiffin’s beliefs were likely shared by a lot of SEC fans and executives on Sunday, as SMU got the last Playoff spot, the corresponding No. 11 seed and the trip to play No. 6 Penn State that could’ve easily gone to Alabama, Ole Miss or South Carolina.
Instead, the SEC had to settle for 3 teams in the inaugural 12-team Playoff, with only conference champion Georgia, Texas and Tennessee getting in. Of those teams, Georgia currently has the best odds to win the College Football Playoff.
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.
