SEC, Ole Miss and Mississippi State Leaders Pushing for Change of Mississippi Flag

The SEC and presidents of both Ole Miss and Mississippi State are urging the state of Mississippi to change their flag.

The SEC and presidents of both Ole Miss and Mississippi State are urging the state of Mississippi to change their flag.

A statement released from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey urged the state of Mississippi to change their flag. The Mississippi Flag, know as the 'Magnolia Flag,' contains the battle flag of the Confederacy in the top left hand corner. 

It has been the state flag since 1861 but has recently drawn considerable attention and pleas of change among racial issues in our nation and the Black Lives Matter movement. 

"It is past time for change to be made to the flag of the State of Mississippi," Sankey said in the statement. "Our students deserve an opportunity to learn and compete in environments that are inclusive and welcoming to all. In the event there is no change, there will be consideration of precluding Southeastern Conference championship events from being conducted the State of Mississippi until the flag is changed."

Sankey's statements have since been backed up by both the Ole Miss Chancellor Glenn Boyce and Athletics Director Keith Carter as well as John Cohen, the athletics director at Mississippi State, and Mark Keenum, the president of Mississippi State. 

"The University of Mississippi community concluded years ago that the Confederate battle flag did not represent many of our core values, such as civility and respect for others," the joint Ole Miss statement read. "Mississippi needs a flag that represents the qualities about our state that unite us, not those that still divide us. We support the SEC's position for changing the Mississippi state flag to an image that is more welcoming and inclusive for all people."

Now, Ole Miss has not flown the state flag on campus at all since 2015. 

Keenum's statement also read that Mississippi State has been pushing for a changing of the flag since the year 2015, including writing a letter to Governor Tate Reeves urging the change. 

"I have great respect for Commissioner Greg Sankey, and I understand why he has taken this position regarding Mississippi’s state flag," Keenum said. "Clearly, the current national climate is such that this debate may produce unintended consequences for our student athletes here at Mississippi State University and those at the University of Mississippi. In addition, there may be similar unintended consequences for academic pursuits at our all our state’s public universities and negative economic impacts on the state’s communities as well."

The push from the SEC and both universities does not come unprompted. 

Many entities around our nation, including NASCAR and the Marine Corps, banned the display of any Confederate emblems nearly two weeks ago; the State of Mississippi is actually considering a change of a flag, although there seem to be many hoops put in place to prevent such changes. 

Regardless, it seems like the SEC is laying the hammer down on Mississippi. The threat to prevent hosting SEC Championship events in the state isn't a large one, as they have not hosted such events in quite some time and don't really have a suitable venue to do such, but the point stands – those in positions of power across the conference want to see a change. 

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