Memphis and Ole Miss will play a four-game, home-and-home football series beginning in 2014, the Commercial Appeal has reported.
The two schools previously had a verbal agreement to play home-and-home in 2016 and 2017. This new agreement, according to Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen, will begin in 2014.
“I enjoy working with the administration there,” Bowen said. “I have a long relationship with (Ole Miss athletic director) Ross (Bjork). I’ve known him a long time. He and I sat down face to face last week and just kind of worked out the details of what it’s going to be. It’s something that needed to happen.”
Although the two athletic directors have verbally agreed to the series, neither school has issued a formal announcement.
Memphis and Ole Miss first met in 1921 and have played a total of 59 times. Ole Miss leads the series 47-10-2 and has won five in a row.
Here is a look at the tentative future non-conference schedules for both Memphis and Ole Miss:
- 2013 – Arkansas State, Duke, at Middle Tennessee
- 2014 – at Miami (FL), Middle Tennessee, Ole Miss (site TBA)
- 2015 – Missouri, Miami (FL), Kansas (site TBA), Ole Miss (site TBA)
- 2016 – at Missouri, Kansas (site TBA), Ole Miss (site TBA)
- 2017 – Tennessee, Ole Miss (site TBA)
- 2013 – Idaho, SE Missouri, at Texas, Troy
- 2014 – Boise State (at ATL), UL Lafayette, Presbyterian, Memphis (site TBA)
- 2015 – UT Martin, Fresno State, at Clemson, at NM State, Memphis (site TBA)
- 2016 – at UAB, Clemson, Wofford, Memphis (site TBA)
- 2017 – South Alabama, Georgia Tech, Tulane, Memphis (site TBA)
- 2018 – at Georgia Tech
- 2021 – Tulane
When the Memphis-Ole Miss series does become official, the Rebels will have one too many non-conference games scheduled in 2015. I would assume that they will cancel either Fresno State or New Mexico State. That is, unless Clemson wants to cancel their 2015-16 series due to the ACC’s new nine-game conference schedule.
We should also mention that Memphis’ future games against Kansas in 2015 and 2016 were verbally agreed to around the same time as Memphis earlier this year. There has been no update on the status of that series.