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The No. 20 Ole Miss Rebels took down the No. 13 LSU Tigers 55-49 in one of the wildest Magnolia Bowl games in recent memory, giving Lane Kiffin’s side a much-needed victory after last week’s letdown against Alabama. Here’s a look at how the Rebels and Tigers are impacted when it comes to the College Football Playoff with this result.
A loss would’ve taken Ole Miss out of the running for the playoff, as two SEC losses would’ve been nearly impossible to overcome. The Rebels are still going to need some help to secure a spot in Atlanta, but this was a victory they had to have. Ole Miss still only has one SEC loss and now gets to move forward without having to worry about Alabama or LSU looming. The problem now is trying to avoid the blunders of past Ole Miss teams that were in a similar position.
The Tigers have two losses but since one was a non-conference setback, they are not completely out of the playoff picture. LSU needs to run the table and hope for a loss from Ole Miss somewhere, which is a big possibility given what the Rebels have historically done from this position. LSU would then need to take out a highly ranked Georgia side in the SEC title game. A two-loss SEC champion, even with one of those losses being a bad look out of the conference, would be really difficult for the committee to ignore.