No. 5 Indiana’s playoff hopes were dashed for all of 10 minutes on Saturday.
After taking a humbling 38-15 loss at No. 2 Ohio State to open up Week 13, the Hoosiers seemed destined to face a College Football Playoff selection committee eager to boot them from the field of 12.
And for those 10 minutes or so it seemed all too likely. Except a little chaos down in Gainesville, Florida quickly ended the pity party in Bloomington.
No. 9 Ole Miss suddenly found itself trailing unranked Florida — a 10.5-point underdog — with only minutes left in the fourth quarter. In an attempt to mount a late comeback, Mississippi quarterback Jaxson Dart instead threw two interceptions in 1:15 of game time.
The Gators — who had lost all four previous games against ranked opponents this season and who had head coach Billy Napier on arguably the hottest seat in the country before the calendar flipped to October — had suddenly become the most important team in college football. At least they were in Indiana.
For an SEC that spent the last week arguing whether it should have four or five teams in the playoff, this was a nightmare. For Ole Miss, it was business as usual.
Mississippi has come so close to postseason glory so many times in the last few years under Lane Kiffin that the wounds have barely healed by the time they’re ripped open again.
Ole Miss started 8-1 last year before losing to Georgia and missing the playoff. In 2022, Ole Miss was 8-1 before losing three straight to end the regular season and missing the playoff. In 2021, it went 10-2 in the regular season, but losses to Alabama and Auburn held it back.
The thing about the early College Football Playoff rankings is that they typically work themselves out (with the notable exception of Florida State last year). Could a three-loss Ole Miss team still make the playoff? It’s possible. But it just got a lot more difficult to boot a one-loss Indiana team.
All the SEC fans who ranted about an inflated Indiana resume blocking one of their teams from the playoff may want to take a closer look at the resumes in their own conference. There’s simply no easy way to discern which SEC teams are worth arguing for anymore.
And, at least for one more week, that means Indiana stays alive in the playoff race.
