Ole Miss may have just been handed an unexpected opening.
With the NCAA’s 2022 eligibility ruling giving every class of 2022 athlete another year, the Rebels suddenly have a reason to revisit that recruiting class and wonder whether there’s a path to adding help before the season gets rolling. That matters for a team trying to build on its 2025 success under first-year head coach Pete Golding, especially with the College Football Playoff sitting there as the goal.
The name that jumps out immediately is defensive tackle Zxavian Harris.
Harris went unselected in the 2026 NFL Draft, then signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent. But if things go sideways in Saints training camp and he gets cut, the possibility exists that he could return to Oxford. It’s a messy wrinkle, but one that could put a former Ole Miss standout back in the mix if the NFL path stalls.
That’s where this ruling starts to feel like a full-blown headache for the sport. Programs everywhere are now going to be searching for ways to add talent, and the timing makes everything more complicated. In Harris’ case, Ole Miss might not even be able to make a move until the Saints’ training camp wraps up, by which point the college season would already be underway.
And Harris may not be the only one. The ripple effect could have every undrafted free agent hearing from schools about a possible return if pro camp doesn’t work out.
Still, the blame doesn’t land on the players or the coaches if they take advantage of the rule. If the NCAA is allowing another year, then it’s hard to point fingers at anyone but the organization that opened the door.
For now, the sport is stepping into uncharted territory. Welcome to the Wild West. College sports leadership, as the saying goes, continues to travel without using GPS.
In Other News...
Ole Miss Just Got Hit With Another Brutal AJ Storr Twist
AJ Storrs time at Ole Miss may end up feeling even shorter than it first looked. The former Rebels guard has entered the transfer portal after being granted an additional year of eligibility through an injunction, setting up yet another roster shakeup for a program that has already had to navigate plenty of movement. Storr gave Ole Miss one productive season, averaging 15.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists across 35 games, and he was one of the more experienced scoring options on the floor.
Now the challenge is finding a landing spot for a player who suddenly has another season available, but is doing so late in the roster-building process. Many teams have already filled out most of their plans for the upcoming year, which makes Storrs next step less straightforward than a normal portal move. For Ole Miss, it leaves another familiar name on the move and another reminder of how quickly the modern college basketball landscape can change. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Faces A Massive Kewan Lacy Decision In 2026
Kewan Lacys 2025 season gave Ole Miss exactly the kind of backfield centerpiece every program wants, with program records in rushing yards and touchdowns and a nation-leading workload to go with it. As a true sophomore, he carried the offense in a way few players can, and now the Rebels are trying to figure out how to handle a player who has already proven he can be the focal point while still having another season of college football ahead.
Ole Miss has already added three transfer running backs for 2026, giving the staff a chance to lean into a deeper, more varied rotation if it wants to ease Lacys burden. The bigger picture is even more complicated: 2026 is expected to be his final college season before an NFL push, and some evaluators already see him as a top 2027 draft prospect. That leaves the Rebels balancing immediate production, long-term draft value and the question of how much wear they want to place on a runner theyll likely only have for one more year. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Rodgers Pulls Oklahoma Into A Huge SEC Big Ten Debate
Jordan Rodgers helped stir an old debate back into the spotlight this week, using Oklahoma as part of the larger conversation about where the SEC stands in relation to the Big Ten. The former Vanderbilt quarterback and ESPN analyst said the SEC still should be viewed as the nations strongest league, pointing to the conferences long run of national title success and the idea that it simply has more teams built to contend at the top.
The timing matters, too, with the upcoming 2026 schedule set to give SEC and Big Ten teams more chances to settle the argument on the field. For an Ole Miss audience, it is the kind of conference-wide discussion that never really goes away, especially when the postseason keeps narrowing the gap between perception and proof. Rodgers point was clear enough, but the next round of crossover games will go a long way toward showing whether the old hierarchy still holds. [Read more 🡒]