Welcome to 2025 and a new calendar year. As we always do, here are 10 dates that are significant -- or at least should be -- to Ole Miss athletics over the next 12 months.
Ole Miss football faces Duke on January 2 in hopes for its third 10-win season in four years, and the basketball team enters SEC play two days later with a home date against Georgia. The Rebels are currently in the Bracketology projections for the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Those two sports dictate much of the mood around the athletics department, so we'll concentrate most of our attention there in this list. There are obviously many other key dates that we know and don't know for the year, but here are 10 to get you ready for the 12 months ahead.
Which dates did we miss? Which dates are you most looking forward to this year? Come talk about it here.
Date: January 22. 2025
Significance: Ole Miss basketball sits at 11-2 currently with league play now here. The Rebels have some nice wins including a neutral site victory over BYU and a road win at Louisville. The two losses are against Purdue on a neutral floor and a tough afternoon at Memphis in recent days.
Ole Miss is currently 39 in the NET, and Joe Lunardi has the Rebels in an 8-9 game during his predictions on Tuesday. The SEC is the nation's best conference, so while 8-10 seems like a league record good enough for NCAA inclusion, you still have to win eight games in the deep, tough conference.
This date is the home matchup against Texas A&M and the first SEC game in the Pavilion with students in session. It's the sixth SEC game on the schedule, so there are three road games and two home games before the students return for the spring. That's enough sample size to know where things stand early in the Rebels' NCAA hopes following the A&M game. The two home dates prior to this one, against Georgia and LSU, feel like must wins.
Date: March 16, 2025
Significance: This one is pretty self-explanatory, as it's Selection Sunday for the men's basketball NCAA Tournament. Chris Beard has a salary and an NIL budget that carry March Madness expectations, and as previously mentioned, the league is doing a lot of heavy lifting for all SEC teams.
Beard is undoubtedly a quality coach, and considering the resources and year-two spot in his tenure, this is an important proof of concept milestone. The backcourt seems good enough and deep enough, while there are questions about the Rebels' abilities in the frontcourt against quality SEC clubs.
The roster and the collective buy-in point to the NCAA Tournament as the standard, and this is the date that will be determined. More than half of the league will be invited; Ole Miss needs to be in that group.
Date: March 23, 2025
Significance: We likely know what Ole Miss baseball will be or won't be by this date. The Rebels open the season in Arlington against Arizona, Texas and Clemson, and after three weaker non-SEC weekends, Ole Miss faces Arkansas and at Missouri in league play.
The Hogs are obviously a key early test at home, and if you're a tournament team, you need to take advantage of Missouri on the schedule. This will be after six weekends, which will show us the early results for Hunter Elliott's return, Joel Mangrum's stamp on the pitching staff and where the new-look offense sits compared to the rest of the conference.
Ole Miss baseball is an important part of Oxford in the spring, and as the weather warms up, the Rebels need to show some signs of life.
Date: April 24, 2025
Significance: This is the start of the NFL Draft, and Ole Miss has several players expected to be early-round selections this year. The Rebels have transformed into one of the notable programs in the SEC and nationally, and one next step is to be better represented in the NFL Draft.
Walter Nolen, Trey Amos, Chris Paul and Princely Umanmielen all upped their draft stocks following one season in Oxford, and that's a key piece of persuasion in the portal market. Tre Harris, Jared Ivey, Caden Davis and Jaxson Dart have all committed to the Reese's Senior Bowl after multiple years in the program.
USA TODAY, on Tuesday, had Nolen and Amos projected as first round picks. Ole Miss hasn't had a first round selection since Evan Engram in 2017 and has had multiple first rounders since Laremy Tunsil, Laquon Treadwell and Robert Nkemdiche in 2016. The Rebels did have three second rounders in 2019.
Date: May 26, 2025
Significance: Ole Miss baseball needs to be back in the NCAA Tournament. I think I wrote that same sentence a year ago when the Rebels were coming off a 6-24 SEC slate, and it's even more critical now following the 11-19 league record in 2024.
The league keeps getting better and better, to the point it's possible a 12-18 SEC record gets into the NCAA Tournament for the first time this spring. And no matter what it takes, Ole Miss needs to at least return to the tournament it won in 2022. The Rebels haven't had a .500 or better league record since 2021, and Mike Bianco's seat gets warmer by the year despite a hefty buyout that still exists on his contract.
Ole Miss will be better defensively, and there are some reasons for optimism in other areas. The success or failure hinges on the Rebels' name being called on this Memorial Day.
Date: July 25, 2025
Significance: You can pick any date toward the end of the summer before camp begins, but we've chosen this one two years in a row, so we'll stick with it. Ole Miss should know its roster by this point, and we can begin to gauge where the league stands following all the portal shenanigans. Micah Davis was the only late pickup for the Rebels a year ago.
April 25 could easily be the other date in this grouping, as that's when the spring portal window closes, but there will likely be movement all summer, so this date feels more appropriate.
Players have five days to enter the portal following their bowl games, and Ole Miss starts spring classes on January 21, with the final day to register in early February. That will close the majority of the transfers, but it's possible close to 10 players still arrive on the roster through the spring and summer -- if last year is any indication.
Date: August 1, 2025
Significance: The much-discussed House Settlement is supposed to go into effect on this date, which would officially trigger athletics departments to compensate athletes out of the school's budget -- a total amount of $20.5 million with most top schools paying the football roster about 75 percent of that.
There will be collective NIL agreements beyond that number at most or all SEC schools, but this is a key shift that continues to drive up prices and player benefits. Many schools are already using this proposed dollar amount in contract negotiations during this portal period, as inflation is certainly at play in NIL agreements.
Should something cause the settlement to postpone or fail, some schools will run into default with player contracts. But, as it stands, the playing field is more level, and we'll continue to see teams pay to keep their better players and potentially overpay for quarterbacks similar to the NFL model. The differences in payroll around the country will be smaller than in the current system.
Date: October 4, 2025
Significance: One critical date is when Ole Miss football is home on its figurative couch. The midseason bye week is this first Saturday in October, and it's a good time to see where the Rebels stand going into the meat of the schedule -- five games deep into the season.
Ole Miss has just one road game -- week two at Kentucky -- in those first five, and the Rebels have games against two of their losses this season -- Kentucky and LSU.
The 2024 season showed things are certainly not played on paper, but in theory, Ole Miss needs to be unscathed at this point after those two games and home contests with Tulane, Arkansas and Georgia State.
The back half of the Rebels' schedule features back-to-back road dates with Georgia and Oklahoma and home contests with South Carolina and Florida. The most margin for error possible heading into October is preferred considering what's ahead.
Date: November 15, 2025
Significance: You can pick any game outside of the The Citadel on the back half of the schedule, and it has a reason to be included, but let's jump to the end of that difficult four-out-of-five-game stretch withe the Gators. Ole Miss faces Georgia, at Oklahoma, at South Carolina and Florida over the course of a month. The Citadel lands before Florida as the one reprieve.
The Rebels have a bye week and a trip to State following the home finale versus the Gators. DJ Lagway is back presumably, and Billy Napier is currently off the hot seat in Gainesville. If Ole Miss has two or fewer losses, this will be a Vaught-Hemingway fever pitch.
Date: December 7, 2025
Significance: Ole Miss is breaking in a new quarterback and loses a lot of key contributors, but the program now carries the annual expectation of competing for the College Football Playoff. The all-day TV show that announces the bracket is this day in early December.
The Rebels are likely coming off back-to-back 10-win seasons and three out of four years, and with Lane Kiffin now deep into his tenure, this remains the next step until it's achieved. Ole Miss fell one game short in 2024 after losing all three of its one-possession games, and while there are plenty of new faces in important spots, the Rebels need to be in the conversation come November.
Considering we don't even know the roster yet, it's hard to slot Ole Miss in the pecking order of the league or nation, but Kiffin has raised the bar where this date is sure to be included in the list.
