No. 11 Rebels get a New Year’s Six Bowl Game!
OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss is headed to a New Year’s Six bowl game for the second time in the last three seasons! The Rebels (10-2, 6-2 SEC) will face Penn State in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on December 30. Kickoff is set for 11:00 a.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.
PEACH BOWL BOUND 🍑
🆚 Penn State
🗓️ December 30
⏰ 11 AM CT
📺 ESPN#HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/wz9S6JhibT— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) December 3, 2023
Ole Miss finished No. 11 in the final CFP Rankings released on Selection Sunday. Most of the analysts had projected Ole Miss just outside of the New Year’s Six bowl games and likely headed to Citrus. However, when Florida State was left out of the playoff semifinals, that sent the Seminoles to the Orange Bowl and kept fellow ACC team Louisville out — thus opening a space for the Rebels in a New Year’s Six game. Alabama moved up to No. 4, taking what many assumed might be the spot for undefeated Florida State.
There are SEC teams in the final rankings: 4) Alabama, 6) Georgia, 9) Missouri, 11) Ole Miss, 13) LSU, and 21) Tennessee.
This marks the second trip for Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin to a New Year’s Six bowl game with the Rebels. Earlier this season, he became the second coach in school history to lead Ole Miss to a multiple 10-win season. If Ole Miss defeats the Nittany Lions, that will become the Rebels’ first 11-win season in program history.
Ole Miss has been to the Peach Bowl two prior times, with the most recent coming in 2014 as the Rebels fell to TCU. The prior appearance came against Georgia Tech in the 1971 Peach Bowl, a win for Ole Miss.
Penn State (10-2) lost this season at Ohio State and against Michigan, 25-14, on November 11.
The Nittany Lions are coached by James Franklin, and his team’s defense is only giving up 11.4 points per game, No. 3 in the nation in scoring defense.
Ole Miss is currently 1-2 in bowl games under Lane Kiffin, beating Indiana in 2020 in the Outback Bowl before falling to Baylor and Texas Tech in the Sugar Bowl and Texas Bowl, respectively, in 2021 and 2022.
Here are the Final CFP Rankings:
- Michigan (13-0)
- Washington (13-0)
- Texas (12-1)
- Alabama (12-1)
- Florida State (13-0)
- Georgia (12-1)
- Ohio State (12-1)
- Oregon (11-2)
- Missouri (10-2)
- Penn State (10-2)
- Ole Miss (10-2)
- Oklahoma (10-2)
- LSU (9-3)
- Arizona (9-3)
- Louisville (10-3)
- Notre Dame (9-3)
- Iowa (10-3)
- NC State (9-3)
- Oregon State (8-4)
- Oklahoma State (9-4)
- Tennessee (8-4)
- Clemson (8-4)
- Liberty (13-0)
- SMU (11-2)
- Kansas State (8-4)
Stay tuned for all the latest info on the Rebels’ trip to the Peach Bowl! Hotty Toddy!
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn’s love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
