Ticket Prices For Florida-Ole Miss Game Send Clear Message Amid Lane Kiffin Coaching Rumors
Rebel fans are going to show up for Kiffin.
Lane Kiffin has felt the need to ask Ole Miss fans to show up for certain home games throughout his tenure in Oxford. Based on ticket prices for the Rebels' regular-season home finale against the Florida Gators on Saturday night, fans do not need any extra motivation to pack Vaught Hemingway Stadium.
At the time of this writing, the get-in price on the secondary market for Saturday's contest is $269. That price is considerably higher than the get-in price for Ole Miss' home game against LSU earlier this season, and even higher than the cost of a secondary-market ticket last season when Georgia visited Oxford.
If you simply look at the game on paper, the extremely high ticket prices feel like an anomaly.
Florida fired head coach Billy Napier in October, the team is 3-6 on the season, and the Gators were just embarrassed by Kentucky by a count of 38-7 a week ago. Every single sign points to this Florida team having already quit on the season.
Sure, it's a night game against an SEC opponent for Ole Miss, but for ticket prices to be higher than they have been in years for a game the Rebels are favored in by more than two touchdowns — from a pure football standpoint — the high prices don't make much sense at all.
Lane Kiffin taking in the Walk of Champions at Ole Miss. (Ayrton Breckenridge/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
When you take into consideration that Kiffin's name continues to be linked to the Florida opening, among others, the asking price suddenly doesn't look all that steep.
READ: Lane Kiffin Leaving Ole Miss For Florida Would Be Nonsensical, And A Lateral Move, At Best
No fan of a visiting team who has taken in an Ole Miss game in Oxford would ever describe the environment inside Vaught Hemingway as hostile. That is still probably too strong a word to describe what the scene may be on Saturday night, but it's safe to assume Rebel fans will be a bit bolder and edgier than they typically are when the contest gets underway.
It goes without saying that Ole Miss fans do not want to see Kiffin leave town for another head coaching gig, and certainly not to another SEC program. Not one person inside the stadium, other than the man himself, will have any clue what Kiffin's near and distant future holds, but Ole Miss fans are clearly going to do their part, and pay their share, to show appreciation for the coach who is 53-19 since arriving in town in 2020.
A must-win game for College Football Playoff aspirations against a Florida team that would like to hire away your beloved head coach in the final home game of the regular season is a nightmare scenario for the Gators.
It's also a nightmare scenario for the Rebels if they do not win the football game, with flashbacks to losing at home to Kentucky last season, which kept Ole Miss out of the Playoff.