Ole Miss AD Keith Carter confirms USC home-and-home series for 2025-26 canceled

Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter has confirmed that the program’s scheduled home-and-home series with USC has been canceled.

The series was scheduled for 2025-26. Carter confirmed the cancellation of the series to The Clarion Ledger. That came shortly after he made comments at a fan event that he expects to see the SEC move to nine conference games in the future, which will make marquee non-conference matchups harder to play.

“I think that’s going to happen,” Carter said. “I think you’re seeing some of these more marquee matchups maybe coming off the books because of that. If you look at USC, they’re going into the Big 10 and they’re playing nine conference games now. I think that’s probably in our future, too.”

Currently, SEC teams like Ole Miss are playing an eight-game conference schedule, giving them four non-conference games a season. That’s a decision that’s been heavily debated recently, especially given the growing size of the conference. It’s part of a larger conversation regarding changes in college football, including conference realignment and the expanded College Football Playoff.

“We’re actually a little bit on hold from a scheduling perspective right now until we know what the SEC schedule is gonna look like moving forward,” Carter said.

Keith Carter’s comments aren’t the first to hint that expanding the conference schedule might be coming for the SEC. In February, Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte seemed to confirm that the nine-game schedule was coming. However, nothing has been officially announced.

For fans, it’s still a big loss as these marque non-conference games are often some of the most exciting and unique matchups. This game, in particular, had the unique element surrounding Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin. He was a national championship-winning assistant coach at USC before later becoming the team’s head coach. That ended with his unceremonious firing at an airport. Today, he has Ole Miss positioned to compete at the top end of the SEC.

The series with USC was originally announced in May 2020, shortly after Keith Carter hired Lane Kiffin to lead the Ole Miss program.

At this point, Ole Miss has The Citadel, Wake Forest, and Tulane on its schedule for 2025. Charlotte, Georgia State, and Eastern Kentucky make up the team’s 2026 non-conference slate.

USC, meanwhile, is moving to the Big Ten, which already plays a nine-game conference schedule. Every season, the Trojans also play Notre Dame in a non-conference game. In 2025, the Trojans also have Georgia Southern on the schedule and in 2026 USC has Fresno State on the schedule. In both seasons, USC will now need to add a new non-conference opponent.