It’s not too often that little old Ole Miss comes into a matchup with mighty Alabama in a position of strength, at least records-wise.

But that’s the weird SEC world we live in right now after the Crimson Tide’s latest fall on Saturday night in Death Valley. And so now it will be Ole Miss with the 8-1 record and Alabama with the slightly less gaudy 7-2 record when the programs collide on Saturday afternoon in Oxford for the latest edition of the “SEC’s Most Southern Rivalry.”

The Grove will be humming at around dawn, with the No. 11 Rebels very much alive for an SEC West title and a trip to Atlanta, with the No. 10 Tide — albeit not with their usual top-3 ranking — in town for a nationally televised game, and with Ole Miss having a real shot to punch back a little in this charming but most lopsided of rivalries.

Alabama circa 2022 isn’t the Alabama we’ve come to know. The Tide are seriously flawed, as the loss at LSU showed again, but the Rebels and their rabid fans won’t care come Saturday. They want blood, crimson-colored blood, because they want a shot at an SEC title and they know that beating Alabama will afford them that shot.

They want to see the Rebels tame the Tide for the 1st time since those crazy back-to-back victories in 2014 and ’15, which finally gave Ole Miss double-digit victories in an endlessly arduous uphill climb against Alabama that began on Oct. 27, 1894. Ironically, the Rebels won that 1st-ever meeting with the Crimson Tide, 6-0, in Jackson, so Ole Miss led the all-time series for about 5 minutes before Bama took over for good and seemingly never stopped beating the Rebels.

Going into Saturday, the grossly lopsided count in the Alabama vs. Ole Miss rivalry looks like this: Alabama 53 wins, Ole Miss 10 wins and 2 ties.

As one might expect, many (a few too many for Ole Miss fans) of those 53 Tide wins over the Rebels are of the blowout nature. Let’s put it this way: The Tide’s 40-point home win over the Rebels in 1983 was only the 11th-biggest margin of victory in the history of the rivalry. So in the list of the 10 biggest blowouts in the Bama-Ole Miss series that we are about to unveil, that pummeling nearly 40 years ago won’t even make it.

That’s how bad it’s been the majority of the time for the Rebels.

And as one might expect, this list of the 10 biggest blowouts is all Alabama, all the time. None of Ole Miss’ 10 wins made the cut, and it wasn’t even close. The Rebels’ largest margin of victory is 25, coming in a 48-23 home win in 1970.

That’s just how it’s gone down during all these decades in the “SEC’s Most Southern Rivalry.” There hasn’t been a lot of Southern hospitality shown by the Tide. That’s just 1 reason why Saturday afternoon could be extra special in Oxford if the Rebels can get that 11th victory.

With that, we give you the 10 biggest blowouts in the history of this lopsided rivalry:

T1. 1917 — Alabama 64, Ole Miss 0

On Oct. 27 at University Field in Tuscaloosa, Thomas Kelley’s Tide took no prisoners against the Rebels. It was Alabama’s 4th straight shutout to begin the season, with the Tide winning those games by a combined 130-0.

Alabama was led that season by captain Jack Hovater, a combination halfback/quarterback/tackle from Russellville.

Bama eventually slowed down after the pounding of Ole Miss, going 1-2-1 the rest of the season to finish 5-2-1. The Tide finished 6th at 3-1-1 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, while the Rebels went 1-4-1 overall and 1-4-0 in the SIAA.

T1. 1930 — Alabama 64, Ole Miss 0

The same lopsided score graced this rivalry 13 years later, when the eventual national champion Tide took down the Rebels on Oct. 4 at Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. It was the 2nd of an eye-popping 8 shutouts during that magical season for Bama, which went 10-0 and capped its championship run with a shutout win (what else?) over Washington State in the Rose Bowl.

This was quite the swan song for Alabama head coach Wallace Wade, who announced on April 1, 1930, that he would resign his position at the end of the 1930 season to take the job at Duke. Wallace left Tuscaloosa a champion.

On that early October day against the Rebels, the Tide opened conference play with a vengeance, taking a 19-0 halftime lead and never looking back. The Tide tacked on 13 points in the 3rd quarter and poured it on in the 4th, scoring 32 points.

3. 2017 — Alabama 66, Ole Miss 3

A century after that first 64-0 shellacking of the Rebels, Nick Saban’s Tide put a few more points on the board in primetime on Sept. 30 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. This was a top-ranked Alabama team, and it was another eventual national champion that Ole Miss was up against.

The Tide piled up 613 total yards against the defenseless Rebels, who managed only 253 yards on the night. Bama was particularly brutal on the ground, with 365 yards rushing, led by quarterback Jalen Hurts’ 101 rushing yards.

It was 35-3 by halftime on the ESPN primetime stage, and the Tide were just getting started. A guy named Tua Tagovailoa came in for Hurts — with Bama having an embarrassment of riches with those 2 quarterbacks on the roster at the same time — and added a 2-yard touchdown run in the 3rd quarter, making it 52-3 midway through the period. It was a jovial night of excess for Bama in a season of excess, and the Rebels were on the receiving end, as they have been so many times in this rivalry.

4. 1924 — Alabama 61, Ole Miss 0

We get back into the time machine and zoom back to the Wade Era. The Crimson Tide went 8-1-0 overall in Wade’s 2nd season and their perfect 5-0-0 mark was good enough to earn them a Southern Conference championship.

During that league title run came a whitewashing of the Rebels on Nov. 1 at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery. It was only 14-0 at halftime that day before Bama’s 47-point, 2nd-half deluge. The Tide scored 9 touchdowns and piled up 26 1st downs while holding the Rebels to 1 measly 1st down.

James Johnson led Bama’s scoring parade with 3 touchdowns, with Johnny Mack Brown adding 2 scores, and David Rosenfeld, Red Barnes, Herschel Caldwell and Andy Cohen each adding 1 TD.

5. 1923 — Alabama 56, Ole Miss 0

The year before that, in Wade’s 1st season, the Tide went 7-2-1 overall and 4-1-1 in the Southern Conference, good for a solid 4th-place finish. In the 2nd game of that season, on Oct. 6 in Tuscaloosa, Bama went crazy yet again against Ole Miss and didn’t stop until its 56-point thrashing was complete.

Bama did all of its scoring that day in the 1st 3 quarters, calling off the dogs in the 4th quarter against the helpless Rebels. This was quite the conference opener for the Tide, who exploded for 8 touchdowns.

Pete Camp was the star for the Crimson Tide, scoring twice when he recovered 2 blocked kicks in the end zone. Barnes also scored twice, and Ben Hudson, Pooley Hubert, Allen MacCartee and Johnny Mack Brown each scored once.

6. 2018 — Alabama 62, Ole Miss 7

Saban and the Tide fell short of another national title that year, getting steamrolled by Clemson in the championship game. But way back in Week 3, in primetime in Oxford, Bama was clicking in every facet of the game. The Tide had 516 total yards that night and held the Rebels to just 9 1st downs.

Tagovailoa was very much in sync with wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, who burned Ole Miss with 3 catches for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns. Tagovailoa was an efficient 11-for-15 passing that night, as he didn’t need to throw the ball a ridiculous amount because the Tide were already up 28-7 after the 1st quarter.

By halftime, it was 49-7 and Saban was in full substitution mode for the rest of the 92-degree night in Oxford. Before that though, Damien Harris paced the Tide on the ground with 62 yards on just 5 carries and a touchdown. Combined with the aforementioned 2017 beatdown, Bama outscored Ole Miss 128-10 during this 2-year period, which really was a snapshot into the lopsidedness of the rivalry.

7. 1915 — Alabama 53, Ole Miss 0

In Kelley’s 1st season in Tuscaloosa, the Tide went a solid 6-2-0 and tied Vanderbilt for 1st place at 5-0-0 in the SIAA. But Bama suffered 2 late-season losses that threw some cold water on it after a 5-0 start. It had 1 game left to end the season on a proper note, and it was against Ole Miss.

And naturally, the Crimson Tide saved their best for last and, more specifically, for the Rebels. On Nov. 25, at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Bama blasted Ole Miss on Thanksgiving Day to send the Rebels back to Oxford at 2-6.

With Kelley hospitalized with typhoid fever earlier in the season, athletic director B.L. Noojin and ex-Alabama quarterback Farley Moody served as co-head coaches during the earliest blowout on our list.

T8. 1919 — Alabama 49, Ole Miss 0

Xen C. Scott made his 1st season as head coach count, going 8-1-0 with a 6-1-0 league record that put the Tide at the top of the SIAA standings with Auburn.

In the 2nd game of that season, on Oct. 11 at University Field in Tuscaloosa, Alabama lit up the scoreboard after being held scoreless for the first 10 minutes of the game. The Tide struck 1st on Mullie Lenoir’s TD run late in the 1st quarter. Then it was Riggs Stephenson and Charles Bartlett who added scoring runs in the 2nd quarter to make it 18-0 at halftime.

Bama exploded in the 3rd quarter, putting up 25 points with the help of a 76-yard touchdown run by Lenoir and a 65-yard interception return by Stephenson. Lenoir and Stephenson each added another touchdown, and J.T. O’Connor also found the end zone to help Bama finish off its latest blitz of Ole Miss.

T8. 1931 — Alabama 55, Ole Miss 6

Frank Thomas took over as head coach for Wade, but the Crimson Tide didn’t miss a beat — in the overall scheme of things and, of course, against Ole Miss. Bama went 9-1 under Thomas and its 7-1 record put it near the top of the Southern Conference standings.

In Week 2 at Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, the Tide took a 34-0 halftime lead over the Rebels and never looked back in what was Thomas’ first Southern Conference game as head coach. Players named Hillman Holley, Johnny Cain, Larry Hughes and Leon Long led the way for Bama on this day.

Ole Miss’ only points of the game came on a 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Jack Burke. Cain and Long then closed out the game with touchdown runs for the final margin.

10. 2011 — Alabama 52, Ole Miss 7

We round out our list of blowouts with one right from the heart of the Saban Era and, yes, the Tide did go on to win the national championship that season. They went 12-1, losing only to LSU in the regular season before getting revenge on the Tigers in the BCS national championship game.

Right smack in the middle of that season, on Oct. 15 in Oxford, Bama did another number on Ole Miss. The Tide smothered the Rebels, holding them to 141 total yards, including just 28 yards rushing.

Trent Richardson was a beast that day, setting career highs with 183 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns.

The 52 points were the most the Tide had scored in an SEC game in over 2 decades, since a 59-28 win over Vanderbilt in 1990.

It was also Bama’s 8th consecutive win over Ole Miss, a streak that would swell to 10 after victories the following 2 years.

And, of course, it was yet another snapshot — the 2011 victory itself and Bama’s 10-game win streak against Ole Miss from 2004-13 — in a brutally lopsided rivalry.

Ole Miss can’t change history, but this Saturday afternoon in Oxford, Lane Kiffin and the resurgent Rebels can make the latest chapter of the series a memorable one for a change.