What does Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss really need to secure a place in 12-team playoffs

The Ole Miss Rebels suffered a 29-26 OT loss to the LSU Tigers in Week 7. With the loss, Ole Miss is now 5-2 and the path to the playoffs got tougher.

Even though the college football playoffs have expanded to 12 teams, Ole Miss has already lost two games and has some tough games on its schedule. So, what does Lane Kiffin and the Rebels need to do to make the playoffs?

What does Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss need to do to secure a playoff spot?

Ole Miss is 5-2 and will likely need to run the table if the Rebels are going to make the college football playoffs.

The SEC is wide open outside of Texas which is undefeated, as all the other teams have at least one loss. However, Ole Miss' loss to LSU, who only has one loss, put the team in a tough spot.

The Rebels will need the LSU Tigers to lose at least two more games so that the latter doesn't hold the tiebreaker. If Ole Miss can run the table, which includes games against Georgia and Oklahoma, a 10-2 season with a win against the Bulldogs could be enough to punch a ticket to the playoffs.

However, ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum doesn't think the Rebels will make the playoffs.

“No, because they still have one game left that could help them, and that’s the Georgia game,” Finebaum said on McElroy and Cubelic, via One3. “But you don’t know really how big that game is going to be if Georgia doesn’t get by Texas. So I think, I mean, they are clearly hanging by a thread.

"I realize we’ve forgotten Missouri here, but that’s not difficult to do based on how they play recently, but, but I think Ole Miss is really, I mean, they’ve had a pretty disastrous couple of weeks here.”

With too many SEC teams having better conference records, it is tough for Ole Miss to get into the championship game. With that in mind, the Rebels will need to win out and get some help from other teams to get an at-large playoff berth at 10-2.

Ole Miss is given odds of +150 to make the college football playoff which implies a 40% chance.