The Ole Miss Rebels have added the Eastern Kentucky Colonels to their 2026 football schedule, FBSchedules.com has learned.

Ole Miss will host Eastern Kentucky at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford on a date to be determined in 2026. EKU will receive a $485,000 guarantee for the game, per a copy of the contract obtained from the University of Mississippi via a state open records request.

The 2026 contest between Ole Miss and EKU will be their first-ever meeting on the football field.

EKU competes in the Ohio Valley Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Colonels finished the 2017 season 4-7 overall and 3-5 in conference play.

Ole Miss now has matchups lined up against FCS opponents for the next nine seasons: Southern Illinois (2018), Southeastern Louisiana (2019), Southeast Missouri (2020), Austin Peay (2021), Central Arkansas (2022), Mercer (2023), Furman (2024), The Citadel (2025), and EKU (2026).

The Rebels also have their Power Five opponent lined up through 2025: vs. Texas Tech (2018; in Houston), vs. California (2019), vs. Baylor (2020; in Houston), vs. Louisville (2021; in Atlanta), at Georgia Tech (2022), vs. Georgia Tech (2023), at Wake Forest (2024), and vs. Wake Forest (2025).

Future Ole Miss Football Schedules