Magnolia Bowl

The LSU–Ole Miss football rivalry, more recently renamed the Magnolia Bowl, is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the LSU Tigers football team of Louisiana State University (LSU) and the Ole Miss Rebels football team of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). The Tigers and the Rebels first met in 1894, and have been regular opponents in Southeastern Conference (SEC), meeting annually since 1945. The rivalry was at its height during the 1950s and 1960s, when both teams were highly ranked and during which time both teams claimed a national championship. The rivalry died down from the 1970s to the 1990, owing Ole Miss not returning to conference or national prominence since the 1970s and because LSU has seen new rivalries emerge when the SEC split into two divisions 1992, most notably Auburn, Alabama, and Florida. Even though the rivalry has not attracted the same national attention in recent years, it still stirs up passion in both Oxford and Baton Rouge.

In 2008, the student bodies of both schools elected to christen the yearly contest the "Magnolia Bowl", the magnolia flower being the state flower of both Louisiana and Mississippi, and award a trophy to the winner. Ole Miss defeated LSU 31-13 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to become the first winner of the new trophy.

LSU leads the all time series, 57-39-4. The longest win streak is 8, held by LSU with victories from 1928 to 1937 (The teams did not meet in 1932 or 1935). The next longest winning streak is 6, a total reached by both Ole Miss and LSU. The Tigers won from 2002 to 2007, while the Rebels were able to defeat LSU from 1952 to 1957. It is the second most played rivalry for both teams. The 2011 edition in Oxford was the 100th meeting between the two schools. It was also the most lopsided game in series history, as top-ranked LSU defeated Ole Miss and coach Houston Nutt 52-3.

Game results
''Mississippi victories are shaded ██ blue. LSU victories shaded in ██ purple. Ties shaded white.''

Notable games

 * 1959 - Billy Cannon's Halloween Night Run—Late in the game between #1 LSU and #3 Ole Miss, LSU was trailing 3-0. Then Billy Cannon returned a punt 89 yards for a TD, breaking seven tackles. The Rebels then drove down the field but were stopped on the LSU 1 yard line as the game ended resulting in a 7-3 victory for LSU in Tiger Stadium. The Rebels would get revenge however in the Sugar Bowl by whipping the Bayou Bengals 21-0 and were declared national champions by several polls.


 * 1960 - LSU fought Ole Miss to a 6-6 tie which was the Johnny Rebs only blemish (9-0-1) en route to a 1960 National Title and were awarded the Grantland Rice trophy by the Football Writers Association of America.


 * 1972 - Jones to Davis;. "The Night The Clock Stopped" -- #6 LSU survived an upset bid from unranked Ole Miss in Tiger Stadium by winning the game on a TD pass from QB Bert Jones to RB Brad Davis. Ole Miss fans say the 1972 contest featured a few seconds of free football. The Tigers trailed the Rebels 16-10 with four seconds to play and the ball on the Ole Miss ten yard line. After a short incompletion by Jones to Jimmy LeDoux at the goal line, the game clock still showed one second remaining. The Tigers used the precious second to win the game on the "last play," 17-16. The home-clock advantage inspired a sign at the Louisiana state line reading, "You are now entering Louisiana. Set your clocks back four seconds."


 * 1989 - The 1989 contest in Oxford proved to have a much different flavor than most college football games. It was played on Nov. 4, one week removed from Ole Miss's Chucky Mullins career-ending injury.  The student body passed buckets around the stadium to a then record crowd of 42,700 at Vaught-Hemingway stadium.  In excess of $150,000 dollars was raised for the Mullins fund.  A very emotional and passionate crowd watched as the Rebels nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback of 21 points against the Tigers, only to have the ball intercepted in the end zone in the waning seconds.  LSU prevailed 35-30


 * 1997 - The Rebels upset then #7 LSU 36-21 one week after the Tigers shocked the then top-ranked Florida Gators. It would spark a three game winning streak against the Tigers, including a thrilling overtime victory in 1998 (37-31).


 * 2003 - Ole Miss entered the game an undefeated 6-0 in SEC conference play while LSU entered the game with only a loss to Florida. The winner of this game would represent the SEC West in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta. If Ole Miss won, they would be the outright SEC West champion and would go to Atlanta. If LSU won, both teams would be SEC West co-champions but LSU would go to Atlanta. LSU won the game, which was played before the then all-time record crowd to ever watch an on-campus football game in Mississippi. LSU then went on to win both the Southeastern Conference championship in Atlanta and the BCS national championship.


 * 2008 - Ole Miss beat #18 LSU 31-13 in Baton Rouge to snap a 6-game losing streak to LSU and to win the first ever Magnolia Bowl trophy.


 * 2009 - With 9 seconds remaining, down by 2 (25-23) on 4th and 26, LSU completes a 40-yard pass to the Ole Miss 6, and left one second on the clock. However, with no timeouts, they simply did not have enough time to execute any sort of play as time expired before LSU could even get off a snap.  Oddly enough, LSU was attempting to spike the ball.  Ole Miss prevailed for their first win at home against LSU since 1998(see 1997).