Ole Miss Football's Lane Kiffin Reacts to Oklahoma Sooners as Annual SEC Rival

Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels have received their opponent designations for each of the next four seasons with LSU, Mississippi State and Oklahoma included as the annual matchups.

The SEC announced in August it would play a nine-game conference schedule starting with the 2026 season.

"In the new format, each SEC school will play every other SEC school at least once every two years - and every opponent home and away over four years - making it the most fair and balanced schedule in the history of the Conference.

"Under the new format, each school will play three annual opponents – focused on maintaining many traditional rivalries – and each team's remaining six games will rotate among the remaining conference schools."

The SEC will continue with a single-standings, non-divisional structure.

The SEC used the following to determine annual and rotating opponents for the next four years:

Annual Opponents

• Annual opponents were determined with consideration given to traditional rivalries, competitive fairness, geography and alignment with existing non-conference home/away commitments

• Annual opponents will be evaluated after each four-year cycle to maintain continued competitive balance.

Rotating Opponents

• The remaining six conference games will come from a rotating pool of the other conference teams

• The rotating schedule is designed so that a team will play every other conference opponent at least once every two years and twice (once at home and once away) over a four-year period.

Ole Miss Rebels Football: Deuce Alexander. — Courtesy of Ole Miss Rebels Football.

Balance

• With nine conference games, eight schools will play five home games each season and eight schools will play four home games.

• Home/away determination was made with the intent of providing seven home games for each school while balancing existing home/away commitments to annual non-conference rivalry games.

• To meet the scheduling priorities established by the conference and its members, the 2026 conference schedule includes cases where schools play at the same venue in back-to-back years. This has occurred in the past when the SEC has changed football scheduling formats.

But one school doesn't necessarily make the most sense for Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin - the Oklahoma Sooners.

“Oklahoma one is disappointing," Kiffin said on Wednesday's SEC Teleconference. "We don’t really have anything in common with them for the fans. So that doesn’t really make any sense, at all.

"That’s unfortunate with so many great teams we’ve played here for a long time, especially from our SEC West years. That’s unfortunate.

"Obviously the Egg Bowl is staying so (the SEC) only had two choices. The LSU one makes sense, and that’s great, the other makes no sense.”

Kiffin and Co. received the full SEC slates through the 2029 season with the following programs set to square off against Ole Miss:

Ole Miss Rebels Football: Trinidad Chambliss. — Courtesy of Ole Miss Rebels Football.

2026

LSU
Mississippi State
at Oklahoma
Auburn
Georgia
Missouri
at Florida
at Vanderbilt
at Texas

2027

at LSU
at Mississippi State
Oklahoma
Alabama
Kentucky
South Carolina
at Arkansas
at Tennessee
at Texas A&M

2028

LSU
Mississippi State
at Oklahoma
Florida
Vanderbilt
Texas
at Auburn
at Georgia
at Missouri

2029

at LSU
at Mississippi State
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Tennessee
Texas A&M
at Alabama
at Kentucky
at South Carolina

More Ole Miss News:

The Ole Miss Football Depth Chart: Lane Kiffin and Co. Gearing Up for 2025 Season

Ole Miss Football 'Impressing' Texas Longhorns, Ohio State Buckeyes Target

Alabama Head Coach Betting Odds: Ole Miss Football's Lane Kiffin Listed as a Favorite

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