LSU-Ole Miss Hasn't Been This Significant in More Than Six Decades

There are rivalries that need records, rankings and postseason implications to feel important.

LSU and Ole Miss has never really been one of them.

More than a century of meetings between the Tigers and Rebels has produced enough history to make almost any trip between Baton Rouge and Oxford meaningful. But Saturday's meeting will enter territory this rivalry hasn't touched in more than six decades.

No. 7 LSU travels to Oxford to face No. 8 Ole Miss in the first meeting between the programs since 1962 in which both teams enter ranked inside the Top 10.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin participates in the Walk of Champions before a college football game between Ole Miss and LSU at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss., on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Sixty-four years later, two old SEC rivals are finally back on this stage.

The last time it happened, John F. Kennedy was president, the Beatles had yet to release their first album in the United States and college football looked almost nothing like the sport that will take over Oxford on Saturday night.

But LSU and Ole Miss were right in the middle of it.

On Nov. 3, 1962, No. 4 LSU welcomed No. 6 Ole Miss to Baton Rouge for a matchup between two of the nation's best teams.

LSU entered 5-0-1 and had allowed just 16 points through its first six games. Ole Miss was 5-0 and had been nearly as dominant, shutting out three opponents before arriving in Baton Rouge.

Something had to give.

It was Ole Miss that walked away with the 15-7 victory, handing LSU its only loss of the season.

The Rebels never lost.

Ole Miss finished 10-0, defeated Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl and ended the season ranked No. 3 in the AP poll. LSU recovered from the loss to finish 9-1-1, capped by a 13-0 victory over No. 4 Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

That era represented one of the high points of a rivalry that once regularly carried national significance.

Just three years earlier came perhaps the most famous moment in LSU football history.

On Halloween night in 1959, No. 1 LSU hosted No. 3 Ole Miss in Tiger Stadium. Trailing 3-0 in the fourth quarter, Billy Cannon fielded a punt at the LSU 11-yard line and raced 89 yards through the Rebels' coverage for the touchdown that gave LSU a 7-3 victory.

More than six decades later, LSU and Ole Miss are once again meeting with single-digit numbers beside both of their names.

And there isn't much about this one that feels ordinary.

Both teams enter unbeaten. Both harbor postseason ambitions. And LSU head coach Lane Kiffin will walk into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium from the visitors' sideline after spending six seasons building the Rebels into a national contender.

That alone would have made this year's Magnolia Bowl one of the most anticipated meetings in recent memory.

The rankings make it historic.

LSU and Ole Miss have played plenty of consequential games since 1962. There have been ranked matchups, upsets and games that reshaped seasons. In 2014, No. 24 LSU knocked off No. 3 Ole Miss in Tiger Stadium. More recently, the series has remained remarkably competitive, with each of the last three meetings decided by fewer than seven points.

But there hasn't been another meeting quite like this.

For the first time in 64 years, LSU and Ole Miss will meet with both programs occupying a place among the nation's Top 10.

The sport has changed. The SEC has changed. Even the coaches have changed.

The rivalry hasn't.

And for one Saturday night in Oxford, LSU and Ole Miss will once again play a game carrying the kind of national weight this rivalry hasn't seen since 1962.

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