With the reported news Thursday of the Southeastern Conference moving closer to a nine-game conference schedule, Ole Miss will have to tweak its future scheduling approach.
Of course, instead of four non-conference games, the school will only need to schedule three non-conference contests. Ole Miss has only scheduled a pair of Group of Six contests each season through 2030, according to FBSchedules.com.
The Rebels will then have to further evaluate whether to add a Power Four game to its non-conference list or stick with Group of Six contests. The Rebels were supposed to play USC in 2026 and 2027, but that game was called off.
In 2026, Ole Miss plays at Charlotte and vs. Wofford. In 2027, Charlotte heads to Oxford and Oregon State makes the trek as well. In 2028, South Alabama and Alcorn State are on the docket for Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. In 2029, Ole Miss goes to Mobile to face South Alabama before hosting Southeast Missouri. Finally, in 2030 Ole Miss makes a return trip to Oregon State in Week 1 and hosts Georgia Southern the next weekend.
It’s not until 2032 when Ole Miss plays a current Power Four team in non-conference with a trip to Virginia Tech. Then in 2030, the Rebels host Purdue then return the trip in 2034. In 2037, the Hokies would come to Oxford.
Of course, in today’s day and age of college football, who knows if Ole Miss still has these Power Four games on the docket next decade.
According to Yahoo! Sports insider Ross Daveberit’d be a move away from the SEC’s traditional eight-game format and move more in line with the Big Ten and Big 12 format. The expectation is the ACC will fall in line with the rest of the Power Four conferences.
A final decision rests with the SEC’s 16 school presidents, who are expected to meet soon to discuss the issue, according to Dellenger. Momentum for the move to a nine-game conference schedule grew traction this past offseason, specifically at the league’s annual Spring Meetings in Destin. That took a backseat to the SEC’s desire for the College Football Playoff selection committee to adopt a ranking criteria that highlights strength of schedule, which the CFP announced earlier this week.
Dellenger pointed out ESPN agreeing to add more money to its media rights deal for a ninth conference game, as well as the impact on future College Football Playoff expansion discussions, all factored into SEC leaders pushing the nine-game schedule to the forefront.
Based on previous nine-game models presented to SEC officials, each SEC team would annually play the same three permanent rivals with the other six conference games rotating each season, per Dellenger.
Despite commissioner Greg Sankey pushing for the move to nine games, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin touted the league’s balance as a reason to stay at eight games.
“People will say, ‘Well, this conference plays nine games, this plays eight games,’” Kiffin said in Atlanta at SEC Media Days. “I don’t think there’s anybody that would trade their nine games and want to come play our eight games that you play down here and the places that you play down here. … You can have teams that aren’t really having a good year for them, but you’ve got to go play at their place down here. It’s just different.
“Scheduling here in this conference and what you do week to week, and the NFL Draft shows that, too. Those are the players you’re playing against. It’s so balanced throughout the conference that every week, you’ve got to really show up. It’s really like the NFL, and I don’t feel like that’s the case in these other conferences or a really good conference similar to us that’s top-heavy, but doesn’t have the middle and bottom the way that we do.”
Now, Ole Miss is inching closer to a nine-game SEC schedule anyway for Kiffin’s staff to have to navigate.
