Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin champions Texas A&M's cause to be ranked No. 1 in the country ahead of Ohio State and Indiana, but his choice of metrics and personal league bias cloud his view of college football's true pecking order. The Aggies have benefited from playing SEC bottom-feeders.
Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin has never been one to mince words. He's also spoken without much thought on many occasions, too. It's a flaw, and I only point it out because I really like Lane Kiffin. I've known him since he was a boy in Tampa when his dad Monte Kiffin coached for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I love what he's done at Ole Miss, and I hope he stays for a long time. He's a great coach, especially on the offensive side of the ball, and he's matured very nicely over the years as a coach and a man.
Kiffin talks about gambling and point spreads way too much, which I don't like at all. It's a bad look for the game, especially with all the arrests going on. Gambling and sports has crossed over the line, and it's just the tip of the iceberg. He should stop talking about Vegas and the gamblers.
And he also talks too much about how much better the SEC is than everyone else. In his world, a 12-team playoff bracket with 12 SEC teams would be just perfect.
On Monday when he met the media, someone asked him about his thoughts on SEC teams in the rankings, both in the Associated Press poll that came out Sunday and the College Football Playoff rankings that will come out Tuesday night.
"Texas A&M being 3, what more do you want them to do to be 1?'' Kiffin said. " Well, they went up to Notre Dame and then won. They've got the highest metrics of everybody, but they're not No. 1. Take those teams there and put them on a neutral field and let Vegas tell you who's better. That's just a lot better than people sitting in a room and just guessing.''
It's not so rare for an SEC coach to defend another team in their league, and SEC coaches do it better than anyone. I get that. Full disclosure, I'm an Indiana grad and a Big Ten guy, but I've covered the SEC for decades too — and it's a great league. I'll never say otherwise.
It's the best league, but the Big Ten is a very close second. They've had back-to-back national champions — Michigan in 2023, Ohio State in 2024 — and Ohio State and Indiana are two of the three remaining unbeaten teams 11 weeks into the 2025 season.
Texas A&M from the SEC is the other. They are the three highest-ranked teams, with Ohio State and Indiana 1-2 and the Aggies at No. 3. Kiffin thinks Texas A&M should be No. 1 — ''becauser the have the highest metrics.''
But where Kiffin is wrong is that anyone can pick their own metrics. Everyone can make their own cases, for Ohio State, Indiana or A&M.
For me, Ohio State beat No. 1 Texas on opening day to move into the No. 1 spot. Remember, all polls are just beauty contests, but the Buckeyes beat what was supposed to be the best team in the country at the time, and they've looked really good every week since. It's fair to vote them No. 1, which is what 55 of the 65 voters in the Associated Press poll did. So did 59 of the 63 voters in the coach's poll, the coaches, their SID or their maid, whoever actually votes.
That's a pretty strong majority.
Indiana at No. 2 seems right as well. They have the best road win of the year, at then-No. 3 Oregon. They have also won at Iowa, Maryland and Penn State, and beat then-No. 9 Illinois by 53 points. Ask any NFL scout, and Indiana has a half-dozen NFL draft picks at least on their roster right now. Maybe more.
Sure, Indiana did not play well at Penn State, but let's not forget that Beaver Stadium is not an easy place to play, and this was the Nittany Lions' first home game since James Franklin was let go. They played hard, and with a ton of emotion. There are NFL draft picks on that roster, too. Indiana did a great job to pul it out and get to 10-0. That last drive by quarterback Fernando Mendoza was awesome, and Omar Cooper Jr.'s miracle was the best catch of the season, by far.
I actually thought that Texas A&M might pass Indiana this week because of the close. They moved closer in the AP poll and we'll know what the CFP selection committee will say in a few hours. And I think that because what I will agree with Kiffin on is that the Aggies have had a good year.
They beat No. 8 Notre Dame on the road in mid-September, a very good win. Here's where I'll disagree with Kiffin, though. He says they aren't getting any credit for that win in South Bend, but I disagree.
The Aggies jumped way up the polls after that win, from No. 16 to No. 9. That too is a bit of a flaw in the system, because we put too much stake in the PRESEASON polls, where A&M was No. 19. It's hard to pass Ohio State when they started at No. 3 and moved to No. 1 the first week. Where you start, that does matter. It shouldn't, but it does.
In SEC play, Texas A&M has beaten Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida, Arkansas, LSU and Missouri. Every one of them has a losing record in the SEC and they make up 75 percent of the bottom half of the league. They are a combined 8-27 in the SEC.
That's ''my metric'' to argue on with Kiffin. That's the reason, at least to me, that Texas A&M sits behind Ohio State and Indiana in the rankings right now. They've had about as easy of an SEC schedule as you can have so far.
Hell, four of those teams are so bad that they're already fired their coaches — Auburn, Florida, Arkansas and LSU. So bad that they're willing to dole out about $100 million in buyouts.
So in other words, the Aggies still have something to prove. There is no shame in being No. 3 in the country. I had one SEC fan argue with me that Texas A&M should be No. 1 — but also thinks they'll lose to Texas on Nov. 28. So maybe they aren't that good. They play South Carolina this week, another SEC bottom feeder.
I don't think much of the bottom of the SEC, much like I think the bottom six in the Big Ten stink pretty bad, too. I do think Indiana's wins against Oregon, Iowa and Illinois are damn impressive, but it's also fair to say that they've gotten a schedule break, too. The bottom six in my Big Ten power rankings this week — Penn State, Michigan State, UCLA, Maryland, Wisconsin and Purdue — are all their schedule.
My point to Kiffin is that he's barking up the wrong tree right now. Ohio State and Indiana have earned those spots. Maybe A&M has too, but SEC fans like to call beating Arkansas and Auburn and Florida this year as quality wins. I think they all stink. I watched Arkansas lose by a million to Notre Dame, watched Florida lose at home to South Florida and watched Auburn all year with one of the ugliest offenses I've ever seen.
The joy of a 12-team playoff is that we'll see Southern football vs. Midwest football matchups in December and January. We did last year, and saw Ohio State beat Tennessee and Texas, and saw Notre Dame beat Georgia. We saw Michigan beat Alabama in the semifinals the year before.
The SEC is a great league, but there are no guarantees that they grab all four spots in the CFP semifinals or anything like that. And SEC apologists are still giving Alabama a pass for losing to a five-loss Florida State team from the ACC.
The SEC has teams ranked No. 3 through No. 6 right now with Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss. Sorry, Lane, but that seems about right.
For now.
Tom Brew is the National Editor-in-Chief at Roundtable Sports. You can follow him in Twitter (X) @tombrewsports
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