I feel like I’m back in high school!
It’s easy to remember a time not too long ago when every big game in October and November felt like it meant something.
In the BCS era, teams couldn’t afford more than one loss (if that, even) if they wanted to keep their national championship hopes alive.
In today’s day and age of expanded playoff talk, the weight of the regular season feels like it gets significantly lighter by the year, but if you keep your eyes peeled, you can find plenty of “do-or-die” matchups to get your blood pumping.
Ole Miss and Oklahoma just so happen to be playing one today at high noon, and the stakes are as high as ever.
The Rebels and the Sooners are looking to keep their playoff hopes alive, as each team comes into this game with one loss, and another defeat could mean something different for each program.
For Ole Miss, a loss to the Sooners might be their last shot at grabbing another signature win over a playoff-caliber team.
The schedule was front-loaded for the Rebels, featuring matchups against LSU and Georgia before Halloween.
After splitting those two contests, the Rebels might need to run the table to avoid leaving their fate in the fickle hands of the College Football Playoff selection committee.
A 10-2 Ole Miss team with their best win being against a likely 8-4 (or worse) Tigers team doesn’t exactly scream “at-large bid.”
A loss for the Sooners, in a vacuum, wouldn’t be the end of the world, as a two-loss Oklahoma team is probably still a lock to get into the dance with how tough their schedule is.
It’s that very schedule, however, that presents a problem.
Oklahoma would likely have to win out after today, and that includes back-to-back road games against Tennessee and Alabama.
Their final four games are against ranked SEC opponents, meaning November will be a meat grinder for Norman’s finest.
It’s not just the on-the-field implications at stake, either.
As Trey Wallace wrote earlier, this is a big game for both Lane Kiffin and the Rebels from a future perspective too.
Should the Sooners defend their home turf and presumably knock the Rebels out of playoff contention, there is a chance Kiffin’s time in Oxford comes to an end after the season is over.
We can wax poetically about the era of the BCS, when the games just meant more, but days like today remind us all that college football still has the most high-stakes regular season of any sport.
And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
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