Rece Davis made his stance clear Tuesday afternoon on The Pat McAfee Show: Ole Miss is the No. 1 team in the country.
The longtime ESPN College GameDay host said the Rebels deserve the top spot after their win over LSU last Saturday night, a result that pushed them to No. 4 in the new AP Poll. Davis wasn’t buying the ranking.
In his view, Ole Miss should be sitting higher than that as it heads into a Week 4 SEC matchup at No. 21 Florida on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
ET on ABC.
That trip to Gainesville sets up a battle between 3-0 teams in The Swamp, and both schools are coming off SEC-opening wins. For Ole Miss, it’s another chance to stack an already strong 2026 résumé, one that also includes the season-opening win over Louisville in Nashville and the victory over LSU in Oxford.
“We get to a point where you have to give credit for accomplishment. And Ole Miss is one of the few teams in the country, they had the big one against LSU and man I really like what I’ve seen from Louisville, and they beat them, too,” Davis said. “Nobody else has 2 of those (wins), you put that together with the best player (Trinidad Chambliss), and that’s why I ranked Ole Miss No. 1 this week.”
Even with Davis planting his flag on Ole Miss, the bigger prize is still months away. Teams are chasing the national championship trophy that will be handed out in late January, when being No. 1 actually counts the most. The Kalshi market, meanwhile, is offering its own read on which teams have the best path to finish there.
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Authorities have said packaged kratom was recovered at both scenes, but they have not linked it to either death, and official autopsy and toxicology results are still pending. For a campus trying to absorb two losses at once, the unanswered questions only deepen the unease, with investigators now working to piece together what happened while the university waits for clearer answers. [Read more 🡒]
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Florida has brought enough versatility to make the matchup a different kind of test for the Rebels defense, with quarterback Aaron Philo and running back Jadan Baugh both giving the scheme more ways to stress an opponent. Golding pointed to that balance as the issue Ole Miss has to sort out, and the answer will likely say plenty about how the Rebels handle the next stretch of their season. [Read more 🡒]