OXFORD — Ole Miss football's planned home-and-home series with the University of Southern California in 2025 and 2026 has been canceled, athletic director Keith Carter told the Clarion-Ledger on Tuesday.
Carter, at a fan event last week, questioned the feasibility of a Rebels-Trojans series and said he expects the SEC to change conference play to nine games.
“I think that's going to happen,” Carter said, “so some of the high-profile matchups might not be around. If you look at USC, they're in the Big Ten and they've played nine conference games now. I think that's probably going to be the case in our future as well.”
The SEC has already announced it will keep conference play at eight games in 2025. Texas AD Chris Del Conte recently said the conference would consider moving to a nine-game schedule in 2026.
As of now, Ole Miss' scheduled non-conference opponents in 2025 are The Citadel, Wake Forest and Tulane. In 2026, the Rebels are scheduled to face Charlotte, Georgia State and Eastern Kentucky.
The SEC requires members to play a non-conference game against a conference powerhouse in the current eight-conference game format, and if that requirement remains in place, the Rebels would meet that requirement with a matchup against Wake Forest in 2025, but would have to add a matchup against a conference powerhouse in 2026.
The series was officially added to the books in May 2020, just months after Carter hired Lane Kiffin to lead the University of Mississippi program. Kiffin was famously fired midway through his senior season at USC.
Hype Train:This is the position group coach Lane Kiffin is most excited about in 2024 for Ole Miss football.
“We're on a little hold right now in terms of the schedule until we know what the upcoming SEC schedule is,” Carter said.
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Reach him at deckert@gannett.com or on Twitter @davideckert98.
Get the latest SEC Football news and insights at SEC Unfiltered Newsletter, Delivered directly to your inbox.
