Ole Miss will open the 2026 season with a neutral-site game against Louisville.
The 2 programs announced the game on Wednesday. It will take the place of Louisville’s previously scheduled matchup with Georgia, which was nixed via a “mutual” decision earlier in the day.
Louisville wasted no time finding a replacement. According to a release from the schools, the game will be played on either Saturday, Sept. 5, or Sunday, Sept. 6, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
It’ll be just the second-ever meeting between the schools. They played each other in 2021 for the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Ole Miss won the game 43-24.
That game catapulted Ole Miss into the AP Top 25 for the first time under Lane Kiffin and ended a 5-year drought outside the poll. Ole Miss has spent all but 3 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25 since.
Next year’s Rebels will look a little different, though. Kiffin is off to LSU and the program promoted defensive coordinator Pete Golding to take his place. The game against Louisville will open Golding’s first full-time season as the school’s head coach.
Louisville went 8-4 this season. The program is 3-0 in season-openers under Jeff Brohm.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
