Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin spoke candidly when asked if he was encouraged by the results of the first official College Football Playoff rankings, which were released on Nov. 4. Kiffin used the moment to call out the landing spot of a fellow SEC team.
“I think in some ways a little bit, but … in other ways, no,” he said. “You know, Texas A&M being (No.) 3. What more do you want them to do to be (No.) 1? … When people want to schedule, and they say, ‘OK, man, we need you to schedule hard teams.’ … Well, they (the Aggies) went up to Notre Dame and won. … What if they didn’t play Notre Dame? They just played whoever and just had an easy win. They’d be ranked in the same spot, so what good did that do if that’s not rewarded?
“They’ve got the highest metrics of everybody, and they’re not No. 1, so I don’t know.”
Kiffin is referring to then-No. 16 Texas A&M’s 41-40 upset over then-No. 8 Notre Dame in Week 3. The Aggies are currently 9-0 on the season and 6-0 in SEC play, with recent wins against then-No. 20 LSU and then-No. 22 Missouri.
Still, Texas A&M checks in at third behind two Big Ten programs: No. 1 Ohio State (9-0) and No. 2 Indiana (10-0).
In August, the CFP selection committee announced that it would place more emphasis on strength of schedule this year when determining which teams make the 12-team field, saying that the schedule strength metric had been adjusted to apply greater weight to games against strong opponents.
The committee also said that an additional metric, record strength, had been added to go beyond a team’s strength of schedule to assess how a team performed against that schedule. The adjustment to the evaluation process came after some in the SEC complained about last season’s inclusion of an 11-2 SMU of the ACC over a 9-3 Alabama or even a pair of 9-3 teams in South Carolina and Ole Miss.
Ohio State opened the 2025 season with a win against then-No. 1 Texas, which just recently returned to the AP Top 25 poll after falling out completely earlier this season. Other than that, the only other ranked win the Buckeyes have under their belt is against then-No. 17 Illinois in Week 7. Ohio State’s biggest wins so far this season, a 70-0 shutout in Week 2 and a 42-3 drubbing in Week 6, came against FCS program Grambling State and Minnesota, respectively.
Indiana also has two ranked wins on the season — double-digit victories against then-No. 9 Illinois and then-No. 3 Oregon. With five wins by 45 points or more, Indiana’s margin of victory is significantly larger than Ohio State’s.
Texas A&M is averaging 37.8 points per game through nine games, more than OSU (36.3) but less than Indiana (44.5 in 10 games). Similarly, the Aggies are averaging more total yards per game (459.8) than the Buckeyes (441.4) but fewer than the Hoosiers (487).
Currently, Indiana doesn’t have another ranked game on its remaining schedule, while both Ohio State and Texas A&M are set to play ranked opponents — Michigan (No. 21) and Texas (No. 11), respectively — in their season finales, though those rankings are subject to change.
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No. 6 Ole Miss is 9-1 on the season, good for fourth in the SEC behind Texas A&M, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Georgia.
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