It’s Sunday afternoon in Mississippi with NFL games on TV’s across the state as many take a little snooze from the Mexican combination plate food coma from post-church activities.
This Sunday is different from every other Sunday in Oxford though as it clicks over on the calender to officially being a home game week with Tulane coming into town on Saturday for the first round of the College Football Playoffs. It’s here.
If you’re one of the 65,000+ Ole Miss fans with tickets, there is a plan to “Stripe
the Vaught” with red and navy for the game on Saturday. Here is how it is broken down by section.
The secondary market like SeatGeek still has tickets available for around $420 and up. It’s likely this will be the largest announced crowd in stadium history (current record: 68,138).
Ole Miss (11-1, 7-1 SEC) will be attempting to beat Tulane (11-2, 7-1 AAC) for the second time this season after a 45-10 victory in September also at the Vaught. ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives the Rebels an 84 percent chance of winning, and the Green Wave’s only other loss this season also came on the road against UTSA.
Vegas oddsmakers have the spread at -17.5 currently in the Rebels favor, which is a little surprising seeing as how no one has seen this team under its new leadership. If Pete Golding’s mantra is right, it doesn’t really matter at this point in the season who leads the team out of the tunnel, and this game could be a carbon copy of the first. Maybe not as clean of a victory, but coaches and players doing whatever it takes to get to a Sugar Bowl rematch against the Georgia Bulldogs.
This should be an elite atmosphere in Oxford. Fans will undoubtedly start pouring into town by Wednesday and Thursday ahead of this historic game. On Airbnb, there are still accomodations available if you’re making last minute plans with homes starting at about $900 for two nights and going up, way up from there.
Ever since the 12-team playoffs expanded, Ole Miss fans were hopeful this day would come. The 2014, 2015, 2021 and 2023 versions of this team showed the Rebels could hang among the top 10 teams in the country. Now it means even more with a chance to advance to the CFP Quarterfinals.
Saturday can’t get here soon enough.
