Buy or Sell? Ole Miss football has the third-best odds to win the SEC in 2024

On3 national analyst Andy Staples last month placed Ole Miss No. 9 in his way-too-early Top 25 college football rankings.

His reasoning was simple: Staples wants to see the fifth iteration of Lane Kiffin’s Rebels beat one or both of Georgia and Alabama.

However, the Crimson Tide fell off the 2024 regular-season schedule, though the Bulldogs roll into Oxford in November. Staples was more optimistic about the idea of laying down a futures bet on Ole Miss to win the SEC.

The Rebels, who won a program-record 11 games last season, kick off the year against Furman in 85 days.

“In most past years you’d have been like, ‘OK, look, even though we think Ole Miss is going to be good, you still have to just put it on Georgia (or) Alabama,” Staples said.

The hypothetical was presented to Staples on this week’s edition of ‘Dear Andy.’

Staples continued, “We got Texas coming in this year. But Ole Miss has one of the better draws in the new SEC.”

The schedule does set up rather nicely.

Ole Miss’ toughest games are at LSU (October 12), Oklahoma (October 26) and Georgia (November 9). The Rebels have the third-best odds (+650) to take the league title behind only Georgia (+185) and Texas (+310). Alabama is +950.

Even more, Athlon Sports, in its preseason Top 134, had Ole Miss as its fifth-best team nationally. The SEC had nine, total, in the Top 25. The Rebels were joined by top-ranked Georgia, Texas (No. 4), Alabama (No. 6), Missouri (No. 10), LSU (No. 11), Tennessee (No. 13) Oklahoma (No. 16) and Texas A&M (No. 18).

“I think they’ve got to beat Georgia to guarantee they get into the SEC championship game,” Staples said of the Rebels. “You’re probably talking about an 8-0 or 7-1 record in SEC play with a win head-to-head against one of the better teams.

“But even if they don’t beat Georgia, what if Georgia loses to Texas and Alabama? Georgia has to play both. Alabama has to play Missouri and Tennessee. Texas has to play Georgia and Oklahoma.”

Ole Miss has one of the strongest returning cores in the country.

Leading the way is third-year starting quarterback Jaxson Dart. Dart has the third-best odds (+1500) to win the Heisman, according to Yahoo! Georgia’s Carson Beck was first at +750.

Dart is one of five Rebels on the On3 Top 100 for 2024. The others are Tre Harris (WR), Walter Nolen (DT), Princely Umanmielen (EDGE) and Juice Wells (WR).

“There’s a good chance Ole Miss can get to Atlanta,” Staples said. “This is a better team than last year, and last year’s team was really good. But you saw when they went to Athens exactly where the deficiencies were.

“Lane Kiffin has addressed those.”

Staples ultimately linked Ole Miss’ SEC-winning odds to those of Colorado claiming the Big 12 and reaching the now-expanded-to-12 College Football Playoff.

“I think it’s a little more likely,” Ole Miss wins the SEC, Staples said. “If Ole Miss beats Georgia at home, they’re probably in Atlanta. If Ole Miss is as good as we think, it comes down to that. For Colorado, there are a lot more variables.”

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