As the calendar shifts to 2023 we again provide dates for the year that should be significant to the overall picture of Ole Miss athletics.
This past year brought a Sugar Bowl and a baseball national championship, though the final couple months of the calendar were a bit of a dud in both football and men's basketball. A review of this list in 365 days would assuredly show some different important days, but here's a storyline primer for the year ahead.
Here's the list for 2023.
Date: February 17, 2023
Significance: Ole Miss plays its first game as the defending national champion. It's the first time in school history for a spectator sport at Ole Miss to take the field as the unanimous, reigning champion. Sure, it's just Delaware and it's February baseball, but it's the start of a different type of season -- one where the games are played without all the side show stuff that's accompanied the majority of the Mike Bianco era.
The countdown will also be on for Bianco to pass famed LSU coach Skip Bertman in SEC wins. Bertman is No. 2 all-time behind Ron Polk with 870 victories, and Bianco is just eight shy of him. Polk is way ahead at 1,218 wins. Bianco should pass Bertman sometime around March 1.
Date: March 9, 2023
Significance: It's the second day of the SEC Mens' Basketball Tournament in Nashville. Will the Rebels be starting their tournament on this day as one of the 5-10 seeds in the conference, or did Ole Miss play the night before as one of those bottom four, signifying a failure of a conference season?
Ole Miss is currently 8-5 on the season after a loss to Tennessee at home. The Rebels dropped four non-league games including a home defeat to UCF and an eyesore of a loss to UNA. The road to an NCAA Tournament berth is farfetched, and Kermit Davis' job security is the main storyline currently with the season. This date will tell us plenty, as attendance and wins and losses will be factors in what's going on as the conference tournament picks up.
Date: April 21-23, 2023
Significance: LSU baseball, and its huge influx of talent comes to Oxford for a three-game set in what should be a huge weekend in town and the first of two weeks built around Oxford entertainment. The Rebels will get a test from and a look at the most talented team in the country on paper as that rivalry continues.
A few hours later, Morgan Wallen has his first of two concerts at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium -- the first-ever concert at the venue. It's huge for the university to get notable, popular musicians on campus, and it's been a success already judging by the ticket sales and extra night added.
It's not on the list, but there's also home baseball for Double Decker the following weekend as Ole Miss hosts Georgia.
Date: July 25, 2023
Significance: There's no set date here, but this should be a good time to know Ole Miss' complete roster for the 2023 season as it pertains to transfer portal additions. The Rebels have added five players from the portal to this point, and that number could easily triple.
Players who plan to enroll at Ole Miss for the spring semester need to be in class by the end of January, though the final day to add classes with instructor approval is February 3. There will be another round of portal additions following spring practice. The window for that is May 1-May 15, though that's just to enter the portal -- not actually enroll.
We'll do plenty of offseason predicting and guessing, but somewhat clear picture won't be known until the summer -- for Ole Miss and the rest of college football.
Date: October 7, 2023
Significance: Ole Miss faces Arkansas at home, and it's the halfway point of the season before a bye week. If you're predicting wins and losses, this is one the Rebels need following the difficult back-to-back of at Alabama and LSU at home.
Ole Miss gets Mercer and Georgia Tech in weeks one and three, but at Tulane is a weird game -- though is should obviously be a win -- in week two, and then that SEC West one-two before the Hogs come to town. Ole Miss needs at least four wins at the end of this day to stay on schedule, and with Georgia on the slate later in the year, Arkansas just isn't one to lose when the goal is to stay in the national conversation to any extent.
The bye week will bring a mood that's dependent on this game and how things are going at the midway point.
Date: October 21, 2023
Significance: It's just one week, but it's a gettable road game against an SEC West opponent, and it comes with the sideshow of Hugh Freeze facing the Rebels as a coach in the league. The soap opera from November is well told, and there will be plenty of media attention on this one.
It's certainly ratcheted up the rivalry, especially with the fan bases, and I expect it to be one both teams circle, even if for different reasons. It also comes before back-to-back home games Ole Miss needs to win against Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. A trip to Georgia follows those.
Date: November 1, 2023
Significance: I don't know the exact date yet, but whenever Ole Miss basketball starts its season is an important one to mark. Whether it's Davis or someone else leading the program, there has to be some energy and excitement in the program -- something that's been dormant for a while now.
Fans will show for a quality product, and there's too much exposure on the sport to not be competitive inside the league and to some level on the national scale. The games in February need to have significance in a positive way.
I don't know what the ceiling or true expectation should be for men's hoops, but it's more than the current reality.
Date: November 23, 2023
Significance: Sure, it's the date of the Mississippi State game, and it's a large reason why it's on the list. After the lackluster Egg Bowl in November, Kiffin needs to get this one and be 3-1 after four games in the series, not 2-2 and the loser of two straight. Much like Arkansas, considering the schedule difficulty, this one is required to reach a lofty win total.
But, in addition to that obvious reason, it's a day to look at the landscape of everything. Ole Miss will have its record for the season and a good idea of the bowl destination options. How has The Grove Collective maintained momentum in its second year of this new structure? Is the Kiffin coaching rumor stuff a thing again?
There's a lot to this final week of the season and where things are for Ole Miss going into 2024 -- a year that Ole Miss should be very good and is the first year of the College Football Playoff.
Date: December 20, 2023
Significance: The early signing period doesn't have the same buzz as National Signing Day of the past because of the transfer portal and all the changes to college football recruiting, but is this the year it's more significant with Ole Miss and high school recruits?
The Rebels signed a talented but small class a couple weeks ago that was 12th nationally in average star ranking but only had 12 players. It's reasonable that Ole Miss' increased NIL capabilities should bear more fruit during the decision times for high-level prospects this spring, summer and fall. Kiffin is always going to hit the portal hard, but there's a happy medium.
What this class looks like likely determines if Kiffin wants to steer more toward that middle or if it's another small class with the same emphasis as this season on the portal.
Date(s): March 19, 2023, June 1, 2023
Significance: I'm cheating, but it's my list, and I can do whatever I want. Women's basketball and softball are two sports potentially on the verge of jumps, and both sports nationally bring exposure and notoriety during the NCAA Tournaments. ESPN gives a lot of air time to women's basketball, and softball routinely has better TV numbers than baseball.
Ole Miss women's basketball made the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time since Armintie Price led the Rebels to the Elite Eight, and it seems poised for a return this season. The date above is for the second weekend. Can the Rebels make that jump as a program?
Ole Miss softball has had a good bit of success in recent years and has made multiple super regionals. It won the SEC Tournament in 2017. Jame Trachsel took Minnesota to the College World Series, and it's all that's left for the Ole Miss program. This date is for the start of that event in Oklahoma City. The Rebels won 41 games last season.
