Ole Miss AD Keith Carter shines some light on the Egg Bowl moving off Thanksgiving night

Last month Ole Miss fans received an answer they were waiting for to help map out their holiday travel plans with news of the Egg Bowl being moved off Thanksgiving night.

The Southeastern Conference announced the ‘Battle for the Golden Egg’ will be played a day later on November 29 at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.

A polarizing topic when it comes to the Rebels football schedule every year, there camps that want to keep the game on Thanksgiving and others who want to see it moved. Fifth year Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has been in the latter camp and got his wish this Fall.

During the Jackson stop of the Rebel Road Trip on Tuesday, Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter provided some insight into how the game got moved and the negotiating process that took place between the school and ESPN.

A 10-year deal between ESPN and the SEC starts with the upcoming 2024-25 athletic year. In previous years ESPN would have to work with CBS when mapping out games for each of the 12 Saturdays, but now ESPN has the sole broadcast rights.

“Technically it’s not even the ADs or the SEC. It’s TV. It’s ESPN” Carter said.

“ABC and ESPN, they will now decide what games they want and what time slots they put them in, and there is some input. As you know we’re going to play the Egg Bowl on Friday at 2:30 this year. Which, again, some people have opinions. Some people want to play Friday, Thursday or Saturday. But in that negotiation ABC came to us and said we want this date and we want to play at this time. We actually had a little negotiating power on another game that got scheduled at a time we wanted on the road.”

Carter did not elaborate on what the other game was, but it would not be hard to presume it was the road trip to Florida on the previous Saturday (November 23). The Rebels and Gators will play in Gainesville six days before the Egg Bowl, but that game was announced on Tuesday as having an 11 a.m. CT kickoff.

“It’s interesting. At times when they want something to happen they’ll work with you a little bit but the times where they just want to impose their times they do,” Carter added. “Again, we get paid a lot of money to play at whatever time they say and that’s kind of how it works.”

Two seasons ago Kiffin was vocal in his displeasure of Ole Miss playing against Arkansas in Fayetteville with a 6:30 p.m. kickoff and then playing Mississippi State five days later.

This year the Bulldogs are hosting Missouri on November 23 with a time to be determined in the new afternoon window designation.

The post Ole Miss AD Keith Carter shines some light on the Egg Bowl moving off Thanksgiving night appeared first on On3.