An expected nine-game SEC slate has Ole Miss in a ‘holding pattern’ with future schedule-making

The college football landscape continues to change daily. A lot of it is off-the-field changes with NIL and transfer portal but on the field the conference realignments and shake ups is trickling down and affecting Ole Miss from a scheduling perspective.

In previous years there would be several announcements of home-and-home series with other Power 5 teams, laying the groundwork for upcoming football seasons. But this year a new trend is happening.

Headlining non-conference matchups are now being rolled back or at the very least seeing less and less of them made. This is due to the major shift in college athletics and the loss of one of those power conferences in The PAC-12.

The last major non-conference series announced by Ole Miss was the upcoming home-and-home with Southern California set to start in Los Angeles for the 2025 season. But a potential return trip for Lane Kiffin looks to not be happening.

A source told The Ole Miss Spirit last week the Southern California games are off the schedule with a formal announcement to come in the near future.

During Tuesday’s Rebel Road Trip stop in Jackson, Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter answered a question on if he had any scheduling news for future match ups.

“No. Not really,” Carter said. “I anticipate at some point we’ll probably go to nine SEC games. I think that’s going to happen. I think you’re seeing some of these more marquee match ups that may be coming off the books because of that. You look at USC, them going into the Big Ten and playing nine conference games now. I think that’s probably in our future, too.”

Due to this Ole Miss is in a “holding pattern” when it comes to future schedule-making with potential non-conference games.

Removing USC from the schedule the next two seasons the 2025 non-conference slate now features Wake Forest as the only Power 4 team. The Citadel and Tulane are the other two teams on the schedule, as of now.

In 2026 Ole Miss hosts Georgia State and Eastern Kentucky with a trip to Charlotte but losing the Trojans coming to Oxford. In 2027 Charlotte and Oregon State come to Oxford and the Rebels go to UConn, as of now.

But all of this could change and the trend of seeing non-conference schedules announced years ahead of time appears to be ending until the SEC figures out a permanent conference format. Next season will still be an eight-team schedule with the 2024 opponents but flipping the home and away locations.

“We’re actually a little bit on hold from a scheduling perspective right now until we know what the SEC schedule is going to look like moving forward,” Carter added. “We’re going to have the mandate to continue to play a (Power 4) team. …We don’t have any new match ups right now. We’re in a little bit of a holding pattern to see where we end up with the SEC.”

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