The Ole Miss Rebels will not play in a bowl game after the 2017 season, due to a self-imposed postseason ban following a four-year NCAA proctology examination. Ole Miss will, however, play in 12 bowl games this year, as confirmed by athletics director Ross Bjork at Saturday’s Grove Bowl spring game in Oxford.
Generally speaking, this is an overall net positive, especially for the players, whom Hugh Freeze needs to motivate to get up for 12 football games and a heavy SEC schedule. As part of that motivational package, then, Freeze treating each game on the schedule as a bowl game heightens the importance for the players from week to week, where they might otherwise view the 2017 season as a lost endeavor (it already sorta is, but that’s not important here).