SEC postpones Saturday's football game between No. 5 Texas A&M and Ole Miss
OXFORD, Miss. — The Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M football game has once again been postponed.
Ole Miss and No. 5-ranked Texas A&M will not play this Saturday because of COVID-19, as announced by the SEC on Monday evening. The game is being postponed because of a "combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals" at Ole Miss.
This game can be rescheduled depending on availability on Dec. 19, but if it can't be played on Dec. 19, the game will be declared a no contest. Ole Miss is scheduled to play LSU on Dec. 19 and Texas A&M is scheduled to play Tennessee that day, making rescheduling contingent upon multiple other teams being available.
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Ole Miss and Texas A&M were originally supposed to play on Nov. 21, but that game had to be postponed because of an outbreak of COVID-19 within the Texas A&M program.
Additionally, Ole Miss will not return to team activities until Friday of this week, meaning the program will have been on pause for 10 days. Per a release from the university, this decision was made in consultation with the Mississippi Department of Health.
Ole Miss is 4-4 and has won three games in a row, but has had plenty of interruptions in that time. The Rebels had a scheduled bye week and didn't play on Nov. 7. Then the original Texas A&M game on Nov. 21 was postponed, and then the Rebels had an impromptu bye week on Dec. 5 to make the rest of the schedule fit. This weekend will now be the fourth in six weeks that Ole Miss does not play a game.
Lane Kiffin initially reported a small number of COVID-19 cases in the Ole Miss program last Monday. On Wednesday, that number increased to a point where the program decided to pause. On Friday, that pause was extended through Dec. 9, and now the pause is extended through Dec. 11.
Whether Ole Miss plays nine or 10 games will not affect the Rebels' bowl eligibility. There are no minimum win requirements for teams to be selected to bowl games this season.
Follow the Clarion Ledger's Nick Suss on Twitter @nicksuss.