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Coach O coming south
OLE MISS-MEMPHIS DIFFER ON WHEN FOOTBALL CONTRACT EXPIRES
Officials at Ole Miss and the University of Memphis apparently have a differing view on when their football contract expires.
Bill Lofton, the U of M's associate athletic director, said at a Highland Hundred golf outing on Friday that he had reviewed the contract and that it expires after the 2011 season. He said the contract was signed by R.C. Johnson, the U of M athletic director, and by Eddie Crawford, senior associate athletic director at Ole Miss.
However, Pete Boone, athletic director at Ole Miss, has told media representatives that the contract between the two universities was signed in March of 1998 and that it calls for home and home games from 2002 through the 2007 season. He also said that discussions about the contract would take place "at the appropriate time," and that as far as knows the Rebels and Tigers are under contract to play three more games, or through the 2007 season.
It has been widely reported that Ole Miss wants to discontinue its football series with the University of Memphis after two more games, the one this year on Labor Day in Memphis and the one in the 2006 season.
Although Ole Miss officials have yet to make a public announcement about it -- and haven't yet officially informed the U of M of its plan -- the plan to drop the series with the U of Memphis has been widely known by Ole Miss alumns and boosters and also has been a topic of internet discussion for some time.
The U of M believes the contract with Ole Miss has seven more years left on it, with a provision that calls for a $200,000 per game buyout. If Ole Miss does opt out of that agreement -- assuming those are the terms -- after two more seasons, it would cost the Rebels a total of $1 million, or $200,000 a year. If Ole Miss opts out after three more games, it would cost the Rebels $800,000 . . . but that assumes the contract actually specifies that games are scheduled through the 2011 season.
An Ole Miss official -- speaking on the condition of anonymity -- says there are several reasons why the Rebels plan to drop the Tigers. Among them:
* Ole Miss would prefer a non-conference home and home series with Tulane because fans would enjoy the trip to New Orleans.
* Ole Miss prefers a somewhat softer non-conference opponent than the U of M. As the Rebel official said: "If we beat Memphis, our fans tend to say 'so what,' but if we lose to Memphis, they get really upset." (Ole Miss has lost to Memphis the last two years.)
* Ole Miss fans are angry because they think the U of M is price gouging on the tickets to the 2005 game in Memphis. Price of the ticket to the game is $45. "Our fans have been complaining like crazy to us about that," the Ole Miss official said. "They pay just $35 for a ticket at places like Alabama and Auburn and they think the $45 price for the game with Memphis is excessive."
Perhaps the most compelling reason, however, has to do with recruiting. New Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron reportedly plans to recruit more heavily in Louisiana than the Rebels have done in past.
Obviously, Orgeron wants to capitalize on his roots -- he is from Louisiana. In order to be more effective at doing that, the thinking is that it would be good for recruiting for the Rebels to play one game a year in Louisiana. The schedule would be set up for Ole Miss to play Tulane in New Orleans every other year, with the Rebels playing LSU in Baton Rouge in the seasons it doesn't play at Tulane.
Another factor is that the Rebels want stronger recruiting inroads in the southern part of Mississippi, especially the Gulf Coast area. That area usually produces a number of top high school prospects every year. The thinking is that playing in nearby New Orleans on a regular basis would strengthen those inroads.
Coaches at Ole Miss believe that there already are strong inroads in the Memphis metropolitan area because of the university's close proximity to Memphis.
Also, Ole Miss either has had or is considering having discussions with several other potential opponents, including UAB, SMU, Houston and Wake Forest. Those games -- except for maybeWake Forest -- would be scheduled on a two-for-one basis, that it the opponents play twice in Oxford, with the Rebels returning only one game.
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