New Ole Miss Football Bowl Projections: Rebels to Citrus or Gator Bowl?

Could the Ole Miss Rebels face an ACC foe in this year's TaxSlayer Gator Bowl? Or how about a Big Ten opponent in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl?

Sep 7, 2024; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels helmet during warm ups prior to the game against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels will be heading to their fifth bowl game in as many years sometime this month, and while the College Football Playoff window seems to have all but closed, there is still a chance that the Rebels could get a pretty decent postseason destination.

Ole Miss (9-3, 5-3 SEC) came into the 2024 season with hopes of reaching the new 12-team playoff, and although it fell short of that goal after assembling a strong roster in the transfer portal, coach Lane Kiffin's team still has a shot to reach double-digit wins for the third time in five years.

But where could this potential 10th win take place? According to one new set of bowl projections, it could be in Jacksonville, Florida, during the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl against an ACC foe.

You can read an excerpt from the 247Sports piece below:

Gator Bowl

Projected matchup: Ole Miss vs. Duke

Ole Miss last played in the Gator Bowl in 1991 and that's the expectation during bowl season unless the Citrus Bowl takes the Rebels over South Carolina. The Gamecocks traveled well to Jacksonville two years ago and that's a definite possibility. Nine-win Duke is a possible opponent for one of the SEC titans in this spot, or potentially Syracuse. We're expecting Duke to land in Jacksonville.

It seems like a very real possibility that Ole Miss could end up in either the Citrus or Gator Bowl, but there have also been projections that the Rebels could be in the ReliaQuest (formerly Outback) Bowl.

In an interesting turn of events, College Football News recently projected that it would be Ole Miss, not South Carolina, who earned the bid to the Citrus Bowl, and the Rebels would face former quarterback Luke Altmyer and the Illinois Fighting Illini. Talk about storylines.

Illinois is currently No. 21 in the College Football Playoff Rankings and holds a record of 9-3 overall and 6-3 in the Big Ten. Altmyer, of course, transferred out of Ole Miss following the 2022 season after losing the starting quarterback battle to Jaxson Dart who has been the Rebels' signal caller ever since.

Either way, it looks like Ole Miss could be feeling tropical in Florida during bowl season, but with conference championship games still left to play, there will be more changes to these projections as the week concludes.