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We knew it was coming, but 2024 SEC football schedule still shocks

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We have known for more than two years that powerhouse football programs Texas and Oklahoma would join the Southeastern Conference. We’ve known for eight months the process was going to fast-forward to begin with the 2024 season.

We knew it was going to make already brutal conference football schedules even more challenging. We knew it make for a league where, truly, only the strongest will survive.

Now the first conference football schedule — the one to be played next fall — has been released, and reality hit with the force of a sleekly muscled 245-pound linebacker with sprinter’s speed, which probably should be the league’s trademark because there are so many of them.

Rick Cleveland

Despite having known for two years what was coming, the announcement was still staggering. In this new SEC, coaches will earn their tens of millions, and unless they are very good at what they do, they will earn it for only a short period of time. Actually, they can be very good at what they do and still not win enough games to remain employed.

Welcome to the SEC, Jeff Lebby at Mississippi State. Your first four conference games are these: Florida, Texas, Georgia and Texas A&M. Good luck with that.

No snickering over there, Ole Miss. During one October-November stretch, the Rebels will play LSU, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia and Florida. Survivors next will play the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving night. Yes, I know, the schedule says they will play on Saturday, Nov. 30, but that’s subject to change and my sources say it will almost surely will. Egg Bowl tailgating will still include turkey and dressing.

All around the league, filthy rich coaches must be shaking their heads and asking, “Did I really sign on for this?”

Consider the case of Florida coach Billy Napier, who will be coaching to keep his job that pays him $51.8 million over seven years. The Gators, who finished 5-7 this past season, will conclude the 2024 season with these five games: at Georgia, at Texas, LSU at home, Ole Miss at home and then at Florida State. Might as well play in the NFC South. Come to think of it, the NFC South might be easier.

Seriously, Florida might want to rethink the idea of opening a schedule with Miami and closing it with Florida State, while playing an eight-game conference schedule in the new SEC in between. Put it this way: Unless Florida drastically improves, that Florida State game on Nov. 30 will be Napier’s last as a Gator. Florida will pay him millions not to coach, and the Gators then will pay millions to another coach to try and survive the SEC minefield.

Even Kirby Smart, whose Georgia teams have won 41 of their last 43 games, might glance ahead at the 2024 schedule and shudder. His Bulldogs will play road games at Alabama, at Texas and at Ole Miss. The home games aren’t much easier.

In the new SEC, there will no longer be eastern and western divisions. All 16 teams will be lumped together. There will be an SEC Championship Game, which will match the two teams with the best conference records.

Everybody else will get a much needed rest.

Old-timers, such as this one, can remember when Mississippi State annually ended its season with Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss. We sports scribes called it Murderer’s Row. Now, in this first expanded SEC season, the Bulldogs don’t play Alabama, Auburn or LSU. And yet, the Bulldogs’ schedule is more difficult than ever. It won’t get easier any time soon. Bama, Auburn and LSU are still out there and will return.

Listen: The new SEC with Oklahoma and Texas includes four of the top 10 the current AP Top 25 poll. It includes five of the top 11, six of the top 12 and seven — seven — of the top 13.

Early projections were that the additions of Texas and Oklahoma would escalate SEC revenue to a point that by 2028 each school will receive $100 million in SEC revenue each year, up from nearly $50 million currently.

That may be. But they are for damn sure going earn it.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1951, Ruby Hurley opened NAACP office in South

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-28 07:00:00

April 28, 1951

Ruby Hurley

Ruby Hurley opened the first permanent office of the NAACP in the South. 

Her introduction to civil rights activism began when she helped organize Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Four years later, she became national youth secretary for the NAACP. In 1951, she opened the organization’s office in Birmingham to grow memberships in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. 

When she arrived in Mississippi, there were only 800 NAACP members. After the governor made remarks she disagreed with, she wrote a letter to the editor that was published in a Mississippi newspaper. After that step in courage, membership grew to 4,000. 

“They were surprised and glad to find someone to challenge the governor,” she told the Chicago Defender. “No Negro had ever challenged the governor before.” 

She helped Medgar Evers investigate the 1955 murder of Emmett Till and other violence against Black Americans. Despite threats, she pushed on. 

“When you’re in the middle of these situations, there’s no room for fear,” she said. “If you have fear in your heart or mind, you can’t do a good job.” 

After an all-white jury acquitted Till’s killers, she appeared on the front cover of Jet magazine with the headline, “Most Militant Negro Woman in the South.” 

Months later, she helped Autherine Lucy become the first Black student at the University of Alabama. 

For her work, she received many threats, including a bombing attempt on her home. She opened an NAACP office in Atlanta, where she served as a mentor for civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, with whom she worked extensively and who went on to serve as an adviser to President Bill Clinton. 

After learning of Evers’ assassination in 1963, she became overwhelmed with sorrow. “I cried for three hours,” she said. “I shall always remember that pool of blood in which he lay and that spattered blood over the car where he tried to drag himself into the house.” 

She died two years after retiring from the NAACP in 1978, and the U.S. Post Office recognized her work in the Civil Rights Pioneers stamp series. In 2022, she was portrayed in the ABC miniseries, “Women of the Movement.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

This content is primarily focused on the historical and personal achievements of Ruby Hurley, a civil rights activist. It emphasizes her dedication and bravery in challenging oppressive systems and advocating for racial justice. The narrative does not appear to endorse or criticize any contemporary political positions but highlights Hurley’s work with the NAACP and her role in significant civil rights events. While it mentions her opposition to certain government figures and the threat she faced, the tone is largely factual and centered on her contributions to history, which supports a centrist position without leaning toward a particular ideological side.

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Mississippi Today

Podcast: Mississippi citizens often left in the dark on special-interest lobbying of politicians

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mississippitoday.org – @GeoffPender – 2025-04-28 06:30:00

With Mississippi’s lack of laws and transparency, citizens are often in the dark about special-interest spending to influence politicians. Mississippi Today’s politics team discusses its recent article shedding light on efforts by DraftKings and others lobbying for legalized online sports betting, including the speaker of the House and his staff being treated to the Super Bowl game this year.

The post Podcast: Mississippi citizens often left in the dark on special-interest lobbying of politicians appeared first on mississippitoday.org



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content reflects a Center-Left bias primarily due to its focus on transparency issues regarding special-interest spending and lobbying in Mississippi. The mention of negative implications associated with lobbying efforts suggests an advocacy for accountability and reform, which aligns with a progressive stance often seen in Center-Left discourse. Additionally, the subject matter, involving regulation of online sports betting, typically garners support from more liberal perspectives concerned about consumer protection and ethical governance.

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Mississippi Today

Derrick Simmons: Monday’s Confederate Memorial Day recognition is awful for Mississippians

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mississippitoday.org – @BobbyHarrison9 – 2025-04-27 14:32:00

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.


Each year, in a handful of states, public offices close, flags are lowered and official ceremonies commemorate “Confederate Memorial Day.”

Mississippi is among those handful of states that on Monday will celebrate the holiday intended to honor the soldiers who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

But let me be clear: celebrating Confederate Memorial Day is not only racist but is bad policy, bad governance and a deep stain on the values we claim to uphold today.

First, there is no separating the Confederacy from the defense of slavery and white supremacy. The Confederacy was not about “states’ rights” in the abstract; it was about the right to own human beings. Confederate leaders themselves made that clear.

Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens declared in his infamous “Cornerstone Speech” that the Confederacy was founded upon “the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.” No amount of revisionist history can erase the fact that the Confederacy’s cause was fundamentally rooted in preserving racial subjugation.

To honor that cause with a state holiday is to glorify a rebellion against the United States fought to defend the indefensible. It is an insult to every citizen who believes in equality and freedom, and it is a cruel slap in the face to Black Americans, whose ancestors endured the horrors of slavery and generations of systemic discrimination that followed.

Beyond its moral bankruptcy, Confederate Memorial Day is simply bad public policy. Holidays are public statements of our values. They are moments when a state, through official sanction, tells its citizens: “This is what we believe is worthy of honor.” Keeping Confederate Memorial Day on the calendar sends a message that a government once committed to denying basic human rights should be celebrated.

That message is not just outdated — it is dangerous. It nurtures the roots of racism, fuels division and legitimizes extremist ideologies that threaten our democracy today.

Moreover, there are real economic and administrative costs to shutting down government offices for this purpose. In a time when states face budget constraints, workforce shortages and urgent civic challenges, it is absurd to prioritize paid time off to commemorate a failed and racist insurrection. Our taxpayer dollars should be used to advance justice, education, infrastructure and economic development — not to prop up a lost cause of hate.

If we truly believe in moving forward together as one people, we must stop clinging to symbols that represent treason, brutality and white supremacy. There is a legislative record that supports this move in a veto-proof majority changing the state Confederate flag in 2020. Taking Confederate Memorial Day off our official state holiday calendar is another necessary step toward a more inclusive and just society.

Mississippi had the largest population of enslaved individuals in 1865 and today has the highest percentage of Black residents in the United States. We should not honor the Confederacy or Confederate Memorial Day. We should replace it.

Replacing a racist holiday with one that celebrates emancipation underscores the state’s rich African American history and promotes a more inclusive understanding of its past. It would also align the state’s observances with national efforts to commemorate the end of slavery and the ongoing pursuit of equality.

I will continue my legislative efforts to replace Confederate Memorial Day as a state holiday with Juneteenth, which commemorates the freedom for America’s enslaved people.

It’s time to end Confederate Memorial Day once and for all.


Derrick T. Simmons, D-Greensville, serves as the minority leader in the state Senate. He represents Bolivar, Coahoma and Washington counties in the Mississippi Senate.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Derrick Simmons: Monday's Confederate Memorial Day recognition is awful for Mississippians appeared first on mississippitoday.org



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Left-Leaning

This article argues against the celebration of Confederate Memorial Day, stating it glorifies a racist and failed rebellion that is harmful to societal values. It critiques the holiday as a symbol of white supremacy and advocates for replacing it with Juneteenth to honor emancipation. The language used, such as referring to the Confederate cause as “moral bankruptcy,” and the call to replace the holiday reflects a progressive stance on social justice and racial equality, common in left-leaning perspectives. Additionally, the writer urges action for inclusivity and justice, positioning the argument within modern liberal values.

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