Although it’s mid-May, ESPN’s College GameDay’s Week 1 and Week 2 destinations for the 2026 season have already been confirmed. Now there’s excitement to know about Week 3. Lane Kiffin’s latest comments about Ole Miss have made the decision for the broadcaster easier. And Pat McAfee just confirmed that.

“Weeks one and week two have been confirmed and announced; they will be at LSU and in Texas,” said McAfee during his Wednesday appearance. “Week three, though, still no announcement on where College Game Day is going. Okay, I will say this. There was a time in my life yesterday where I thought we were definitely announcing only that we were going to LSU at Ole Miss.”

“When I heard we were going to be announcing GameDays, I was like, All right, let’s just do the one. Let’s just go ahead and announce it. We’re going to go to that week three. We can all schedule ahead a little bit. Hey, this is coming right around the corner. We’re going to be down there. Obviously, this is the game this offseason that every college football fan is eager to watch. And we know everybody in Mississippi is excited to welcome someone back up, especially after every new interview drops,” added the ESPN personality.

“So I thought that was going to be the announcement. Then, before we go up there, I’m told, ‘Hey, we’re announcing week one and week two.’ I was like, ‘What about week three? Because I know that’s where we’re sitting right there, like we’re not announcing week three.'”

This matchup between LSU and Ole Miss is considered the most narrative-heavy regular-season game in 2026, following Lane Kiffin’s controversial departure. This Week 3 game will be his first time back at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford as LSU head coach. After building the Rebels into a perennial playoff contender, his decision to jump to a direct SEC West rival was an act of ultimate betrayal in the eyes of the Oxford faithful.

Now, the stakes of the matchup could not be higher because this serves as the SEC conference opener for both schools, and a Week 3 loss puts one team immediately behind in an unforgiving SEC title race. Last season, Ole Miss upset LSU 24-19 in a defensive battle when Kiffin was the Rebels’ head coach.

This season, as the Tigers’ head coach, Kiffin is hunting for immediate revenge, while Ole Miss is looking to continue their winning streak under Pete Golding. Therefore, Golding will get his first shot at his former boss in Week 3. But before that, Lane Kiffin already made a subtle move at the Rebels while revealing the reason for leaving Ole Miss.

Lane Kiffin’s controversial take on the Rebels

Although there are several narratives about Kiffin’s LSU move, the coach revealed the actual reason during an interview with Vanity Fair. He said during recruitment at Ole Miss, he faced past racial tensions and a lack of diversity as major hurdles, which he did not face in Baton Rouge.

“‘Hey, coach, we really like you. But my grandparents aren’t letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'” said Kiffin. “That doesn’t come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus’s diversity feels so great: ‘It feels like there’s no segregation. And we want that for our kid because that’s the real world.”

Although the LSU head coach mentioned it’s not a shot at Ole Miss but a fact. Yet, Kiffin faced immediate backlash from Ole Miss fans and former players.

“Lane had no problem selling Oxford to black athletes while stacking classes & winning games, and cashing a $90M contract off our backs,” said former Ole Miss DT Jerrell Powe. “Now Mississippi is ‘too racist’? Man, please. He used black players to build himself up, then dipped in a playoff run. Tiger don’t change stripes.”

Now, the Week 3 matchup scheduled for September 19, 2026, will reveal if Kiffin’s LSU move is fruitful or not.