“It’s gonna be impossible to find out”: Pat McAfee puts serious doubts over Lane Kiffin’s dismissal of automatic qualifiers

Every now and then, Lane Kiffin takes a blunt stand on ongoing issues in college football. This time, too, the Ole Miss coach came into the spotlight for sharing his opinion on automatic qualifiers, or rather, the dismissal of the concept from the college football playoff.

On Thursday's episode of "The Pat McAfee Show," host Pat McAfee pointed to Heather Dinich's tweet reporting Lane Kiffin's take. The tweet said, "Lane Kiffin said he wants to get rid of automatics and have the 16 best teams. Period."

McAfee began in his patented style, first presenting Kiffin's take in his own way. But then he goes on to point out the flaws in the system suggested by the Ole Miss head coach. Being a commentator of the game for the last five years or so, McAfee has seen some of these things playing out. And thus, he was skeptical of the system.

McAfee said, "The issue here is getting the 16 best teams. How are you gonna figure that one out?.. Especially now that we know that there's a chance that teams are built differently due to the climate in which they're gonna have to play."

Per the former West Virginia kicker, climate dictates if a team will be built like Tennessee or Ohio State. And one team cannot be expected to build according to another conference. And then it also becomes tough to judge them because each program is trying to do something different according to the situation and opponents they are dealt.

Pat McAfee also argued that even common opponents are not a viable criterion since every team will have at least a couple of off nights in a season, as last year's Ohio State team proved. There are too many moving parts in today's college football scenario.

Simply ranking the top 16 teams is a complicated task, as recent years have shown us. One or the other team will be disappointed due to the sheer competition that exists across programs and conferences.

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Lane Kiffin talks about being in the EA CFB26 game

In 2024, Lane Kiffin reportedly said that he wants to be in the game because it would help him with recruitment. Come 2025, he's not just in but also on the cover. During the SEC spring meeting on Wednesday, a journalist asked Ole Miss coach if he had any final approval over his animation.

Lane Kiffin said (3:50 onwards), "No, it was just a neat experience going out there. I think the picture they put out there wasn't how we were standing necessarily, but just to be standing there, and there's Reggie (Bush), (Tim) Tebow, it was really cool."

Kiffin has been instrumental in bringing Ole Miss back into the mainstream and shining a national spotlight on them. Now, he has made more strides on the field and proven that his team is ready to take the next step.