Lane Kiffin reveals why he is ok with CFP committee moving Texas Tech over Ole Miss in rankings: 'You'd want it the other way'

The College Football Playoff is now rapidly approaching, and, once again, all eyes were on the selection committee rankings that came out on Tuesday night. There wasn’t a ton of movement within those rankings, but Texas Tech did jump over Ole Miss and head coach Lane Kiffin.

This came in a Week where Ole Miss beat The Citadel, an FCS program, 49-0. Texas Tech, meanwhile, hosted College GameDay and beat a then-Top 10 BYU team by a score of 29-7. The Red Raiders made that jump despite the Rebels having the tougher strength of schedule overall on their resume. Despite that, Kiffin explained on the weekly SEC teleconference why he isn’t bothered by getting jumped.

“I think you just did a really good job with a term they call gaslighting,” Lane Kiffin said. “So, I understand that, but I didn’t care. Whatever. And, I guess a team that won against a ranked team and player really well jumped us. So, no issue with that. If you were on the other side of it, you’d want it the other way. So, I don’t complain just to complain, regardless of what’s going on. You don’t realize, what if you were on the other side of it, wouldn’t you want to move up? So, I don’t have a problem with it.”

To this point in the season, both Ole Miss and Texas Tech are 9-1, with a conference loss. In Ole Miss’ case, it was on the road to Georgia. For Texas Tech, it was on the road against Arizona State. Overall, in terms of strength of schedule Ole Miss is currently ranked 32nd. Texas Tech, meanwhile, is 48th. So, getting into their resumes becomes a matter of some debate. However, as Kiffin shared, he would certainly want to see his team rewarded for a ranked win.

This comes a year removed from strength of schedule being a major concern for the SEC, as it felt that the selection committee didn’t respect that metric enough a year ago. However, there are those who have argued that it’s not that the metric gets ignored, just not valued to the same degree as some people around the SEC value it.

Certainly, Lane Kiffin is well aware of that strength of schedule discussion. Ole Miss got left out a season ago, hoping for more credit due to their schedule at the time. Then, he was against expanding the SEC conference schedule to nine games moving forward because of how tough he feels the conference already is to compete in.

“I’ve talked extensively about that well before we ever went to nine games,” Kiffin said. “And how unless it was guaranteed that it was going to be a critical, critical factor in rankings and who makes the Playoff, going to nine games would do nothing but hurt us as the SEC. So, I’m not the guy who says that after it was done. I said it well before.”

Kiffin further noted that strength of schedule isn’t inherently going to get you ranked higher. Instead, he warned that there’s actually a good chance it gets a coach fired, which has been the case looking around the country.

“You know, shoot, strength of schedule hasn’t really proved to help you in the rankings, but what it will do is get you fired. Because five of the top 10 strength of schedules this season, those people who wanted these really hard schedules,” Kiffin said. “And they’re going to get harder with nine games, five of those 10 have fired their head coach. It doesn’t help you in the rankings, but it helps you get fired. So, there’s facts.”

The regular season is still ongoing and the selection committee is going to get more data points. That includes opportunities to lose. So, until then, the rankings are still going to fluctuate plenty.