Ole Miss handled business against Wake Forest without too much hassle on Saturday evening despite plenty of mental mistakes. After the 40-6 win, head coach Lane Kiffin spoke in his post-game press conference about the reverse fixture not going ahead in 2025.
Kiffin said that Wake Forest AD John Currie called this past week and said they don't want to play the game in Oxford next season, meaning they will buy out the game in 2025.
It's good motivation for the Ole Miss team
It's something that does happen in college football, but not frequently. Nothing has come out to say why Wake Forest are set to pay the $1 million pound buyout of the game, but Lane Kiffin has said it's great motivation for the team.
Too bad we can’t play it back next year. @OleMissFB https://t.co/xNcrFnVVnL
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) September 15, 2024
""Someone was willing to pay money not to play us. It says a lot about where our program is right now.""Lane Kiffin in press conference
Lane Kiffin praised the program's progress and said it was a great motivation for the players against Wake Forest and going forward, as it suggests teams don't want to face Ole Miss going forward.
The Rebels will need to schedule a new opponent for 2025 unless the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule, which has been talked about. Rumors were that it would not happen until 2026, but with LSU and Ole Miss now only having three out-of-conference games scheduled in 2025, it could potentially happen sooner. We shall see.