‘Awesome’ Ole Miss baseball drew rivals MSU and Arkansas as permanent opponents
The SEC this week announced the two permanent baseball opponents for each of its now-16 schools.
Ole Miss, less than 100 days from the 2024 season, is guaranteed to play annually Mississippi State and Arkansas starting in 2025, the first year with Oklahoma and Texas participating in the league. The Rebels signed the No. 6 overall recruiting class in the nation on Wednesday.
They open the 2024 campaign with a four-game series in Honolulu, Hawaii, starting February 16.
“The baseball rivalry between Ole Miss and those two schools go back way further than the decade I’ve been here,” Ole Miss hitting coach Mike Clement said. “I don’t know if there’s a better rivalry in our league in my time in the league than Ole Miss and Arkansas.
“From that standpoint, I think it’s awesome.”
Ole Miss drawing the Bulldogs and Razorbacks is hardly a surprise.
Mississippi State is the Rebels’ bitter in-state rival, while few, if any, teams in the modern era have challenged Ole Miss across all levels more than Arkansas. Ole Miss has taken on the Razorbacks in either the regular season, SEC tournament, a Super Regional or the College World Series 18 times since 2019. The Rebels are 9-9 in those games.
For perspective, former Ole Miss slugger Kevin Graham played in over 180 games at Ole Miss. Ten percent were against the Razorbacks.
“Geographically, where we’re at, it was going to be for sure us and State, and the other one was going to be LSU, Arkansas or probably Vanderbilt,” Clement said. “It preserves awesome rivalries, and we’re excited about it.”
SEC teams starting in 2025 will play a three-game series against two permanent opponents and eight rotating opponents for a total of 30 conference games. Standings will be kept in a single-division format, with divisional standings eliminated.
Permanent opponents were determined based on a number of factors. Among them: Geography, traditional opponents and strength of schedule.
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SEC BASEBALL PERMANENT OPPONENTS
Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee
Arkansas: Ole Miss, Missouri
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia
Florida: Georgia, South Carolina
Georgia: Florida, Auburn
Kentucky: South Carolina, Vanderbilt
LSU: Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Ole Miss: Mississippi State, Arkansas
Mississippi State: Ole Miss, LSU
Missouri: Oklahoma, Arkansas
Oklahoma: Missouri, Texas
South Carolina: Kentucky, Florida
Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Alabama
Texas: Texas A&M, Oklahoma
Texas A&M: Texas, LSU
Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Kentucky
