Moments after Ole Miss’ thrilling Sugar Bowl win over Georgia, the first person Walker Jones found on the field was newly minted Rebels hero Lucas Carneiro.

Carneiro had just hit the game-winning 47-yard field goal to send Ole Miss to a national semifinal and one win away from the national championship game.

When Carneiro saw Jones, the executive director of the Grove Collective, a big smile broke across his face amidst the exuberant on-field celebration.

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Carneiro said with a grin.

“You better,” Jones replied.

“I’ve never been so happy to get that call the next day,” Jones told CBS Sports this week.

Keeping a star kicker has been just one piece of the puzzle for Ole Miss, but in many ways, it has been representative of what the last couple of weeks for the Rebels. It’s been a wild run of success, concern over possible tampering and poaching off the field and a concerted effort to do everything possible to keep the momentum.

It’s hard to find a program that has handled the uniquely challenging circumstances better than Ole Miss.

Consider what Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding, athletic director Keith Carter and others have had to deal with in recent weeks. All the drama around whether the coaches following Lane Kiffin to LSU would be allowed to finish the playoff run.  A narrative that it was just a matter of time before Ole Miss’ top players fled Oxford to join Kiffin at LSU. All of this while preparing for a Thursday semifinal against Miami and navigating an especially wild and active transfer portal.

And yet, Ole Miss has re-signed quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (pending waiver), running back Kewan Lacy, Carneiro and other key contributors.

“None of these guys left,” Matt Bowers, a prominent Ole Miss booster who owns 14 car dealerships, told CBS Sports. “We don’t have to guess what that means. You can say whatever you want if you’re LSU. You can say, ‘Well, they overspent.’ OK, tell yourself that. The truth may be harder to accept.”

That’s a credit to a talented, sleep-deprived group. Everyone from Golding and his staff to Jones and his team at the Grove Collective — along with newly added president of football Austin Thomas, assistant general manager Kelvin Bolden and senior associate athletic director for cap management Matt McLaughlin — has helped keep the train on the tracks.

“We’re in a really good place,” Carter told CBS Sports. “The brand is really strong. Clearly, we’re proving that we can win at a high level and make deep runs in the playoffs. So why would these guys want to leave? I think that’s what we have to continue to build here in Oxford.”

Invest in Golding

Carter’s big bet on Golding to replace Kiffin has already paid major dividends. In many ways, it was both a bold and practical decision to elevate the likable defensive coordinator and entrust a first-time head coach with navigating an unprecedented situation. 

What Carter and others around the program understood was that Golding had forged real connections with players, boosters and other key figures. He had long been a top recruiter for a reason. If Ole Miss wanted to keep its roster intact for a playoff run, Golding may have been the only choice.

The way Golding handled the aftermath of Kiffin’s exit has been about as close to ideal as anyone could have hoped. And while this story is not about Lane Kiffin, there is no question he has had an impact, intentional or not, on what is happening in Oxford. 

Doubling down 

The manner in which Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU, and the hurt feelings it stirred among fans, has energized the base. There is a sense of resolve to prove the program can sustain its success in a post-Kiffin world, that the self-appointed “Portal King” was not the lone driver of Ole Miss’ success in the NIL and transfer portal era. 

As Jones joked, “It’s amazing what a common enemy will do.”

“I think they knew this was a rallying point,” Jones said. “Our people kind of love us against the world, little Ole Miss can’t compete, little Ole Miss was built just by happenstance. They wanted, along with us, to show everybody this is built to last and we’re bigger than any one man or any one variable.

“We’ve got a lot of resources in place, commitment in place from our administration to our coaches to our collective, and that has aligned our fanbase. They know what to do.”

The money has come pouring in. Carter said Ole Miss athletics has already set a record for annual giving just six months into the fiscal year. After Ole Miss’ home playoff win over Tulane, 30-40 people joined the Vaught Society, which comes with a $25,000 commitment. 

“It’s been a perfect storm in a really good way,” Carter said. “Our fans are more galvanized at this moment than maybe they’ve ever been.”

Said Bowers, a key financial contributor: “These people have money, and they’re motivated. In the name, image and likeness era, we’re one of the most successful programs in the country. That’s a fact.” 

Everything Ole Miss is doing at this moment works toward sustainability. Beyond retaining top talent, Golding and his staff have been aggressively adding it. The Rebels currently have the nation’s No. 6 transfer class, headlined by Florida defensive lineman Micai Boireau, LSU offensive lineman Carius Curne and Auburn defensive back Jay Crawford. If Chambliss’ waiver isn’t approved, it’s a good bet Ole Miss will add an impact transfer quarterback, too. 

With the new additions, there’s a world in which Ole Miss could be even better next season. After all, this was supposed to be the rebuilding year after losing top talent such as Jaxson Dart and Walter Nolen off last year’s team. If Chambliss is eligible for another year — and that is a big if right now — there may not be a better one-two offensive punch in the country than he and Lacy. 

At minimum, Ole Miss fans will get to watch the two stars suit up for at least one more game on Thursday in Arizona. A win would add another chapter in what’s already been a remarkable and historic season for the Rebels. One more win and Ole Miss is playing for a national championship without the man who started the season as its head coach. Two more wins and Golding and this special group of Rebels will go down as legends. 

Through all the outside noise and wild circumstances, Ole Miss football has never been in a better place. And everyone associated with the program is putting in the hard work to keep it going.

“They’ve got a taste of this,” Carter said, “and they want to hold onto it.” 

Does college football need fixing? That could be argued.

It’s inarguable that there are broken aspects to the sport (see the calendar), but at the same time, the sport is gobbling up as much money as it ever has.

As I reflect on the last year, I’ve come up with two whacky ways I think college football could improve on some of its issues. I stayed away from the calendar and the portal because everyone at this point knows something has to give there.

1. NIL-Incentive-Based Preseason Bowl Games

I’m typing this out with a quad box on my TV that features three bowl games (this was written on Dec. 31), so just know if the bowl system doesn’t innovate, I’ll still be here for it.

With that said, there is no denying that the bowl season has been losing its luster over the past decade or so. So, let’s try to find a way to spruce things up. My suggestion (which I don’t think is necessarily original): move them to the next preseason.

That may sound all sorts of backward, but is it more backward than a team having to turn down a bowl because they don’t have enough players to field a team? Is it more backward than a handful of teams going into bowl season with cobbled together coaching staffs because their coach left for another job?

Here’s my idea: Based off conference finishes, teams will be slotted into bowl games to start the next season. Using the Texas Bowl as an example, say it hosts the third-place finisher in the Big 12 and the fifth-place finisher in the SEC (would’ve provided a Utah vs. Texas matchup based on this season’s results). Then, the Texas Bowl’s sponsor would have to pony up some money (how much, I have no idea) for some NIL during next season’s games.

You could argue that the roster that makes the bowl should get the NIL, which I won’t put up much of a fight arguing about, but it going to the next season’s roster would benefit the program going into the offseason. Coaches would be able to recruit the portal with, “Oh, and we’re in the X Bowl, which pays out X.” Maybe it would also be enough to keep some of the players undecided about hopping in the portal to stay in a spot.

It’s a reward to the program for having a good season that they now have the extra recruiting tool and a reward for players in that they get paid. AND it provides The College Football Playoff committee more potentially relevant interconference data points come the end of the year. It’s a win-win-win, as far as I’m concerned.

Things that would need to be figured out:

For one, a lot of teams already have nonconference games scheduled way in advance, so you’d have to deconstruct some of those deals.

Secondly, teams ineligible for a bowl would have a relatively quick turnaround to get a game scheduled. But basically every other college sport puts schedules together much quicker than football, so I think you’d be able to work around that.

2. Region-Based Promotion, Relegation

From a fun idea that could somewhat realistically be implemented smoothly to something that is bat-poop crazy that the powers that be would never agree to.

This prompt is sort of two in one, as it would take conferences realigning (again) plus the implementation of a European soccer-esque promotion-relegation system.

Starting with the conferences, nothing makes sense anymore. USC is in the same conference as Rutgers, despite the two schools having about a 40-hour drive between them. Cal and Miami share a conference despite having about a 45-hour drive between them.

I say the conferences should come together (already not going to happen) and divide schools up based on geography. Not just the Power Five, either. The American Conference hosts UTSA (San Antonio, Texas) and Army  (West Point, New York). Conference USA has New Mexico State and Delaware. Those leagues don’t have the TV revenue to afford such travel expenses as easily.

So, the Power Five returns (welcome back, Pac-12!), and each of those league’s get paired with a Group of Five conference. The winner of the Group of Five conference and the last-place team in the Power Conference would switch leagues (or potentially play a winner-take-all postseason game?). Base media rights payouts would be uniform across the P5 leagues (again, never going to happen) and in the G5.

Let’s say it’s Pac-12/Mountain West, Big 12/American, Big Ten/MAC, SEC/Sun Belt and ACC/Conference USA.

I still think the college football regular season means a lot, but this would only add to that for literally every team. There’s even intrigue for teams having bad seasons. A late November game between two teams that are 2-9 might be must-see TV.

Aside from helping with travel costs for schools and fans, the regionality of things would also bring back some rivalries and create others.

Take the state of Texas, for example. There are six Group of Five programs in the Lone Star State, and those six schools are in three difference conferences. Rice (Houston, Texas) shares a conference with Temple (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) but not with Sam Houston (Huntsville, Texas). I imagine a lot of players on those G5 Texas teams know one another and would probably very much like to prove that their college team is better than someone they grew up playing in high school. Same for regular students. Say Joe and Bob grew up as friends in Dallas. One went down to Texas State for college and the other went to North Texas. That game has a new level of care to it for bragging rights over your buddy.

Things that would need to be figured out:

Money means this idea is dead on arrival. Schools in the Big Ten or SEC right now would have no interest in sharing their portion of the pie, even if it was for the betterment of the sport. Could you imagine one of those Big Ten teams who woke up on third base despite basically never being relevant in football agreeing to a system that could have them relegated to the MAC? No way. College Football Playoff payouts to the league would have to be big with the regionality of things. The more teams that league gets in, the more money that league gets to divvy among its schools.

Promotion-relegation also isn’t as smooth an idea in college sports as it is professional sports because of A, the transfer portal, and B, eligibility. If a Group of Five team was good enough to win its league, the difference in P5 media rights money and G5 media rights money would need to be enough for the G5 team to retain at least portions of its roster rather than the whole thing getting blown up, forcing an underfunded team into a stronger league while having to replace a large chunk of the roster. But even if that money is enough for rising G5 schools to retain their rosters, what if that G5 school was filled with seniors?

Then would anyone belong to any conference anymore? Or is it sort of like the NFL but rather than AFC and NFC its Big 12, SEC, etc.?

It’s messy, there is no doubt, but if somehow the whole system was reset, I think this system would be a ton of fun.