Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Tennessee have senior football players who already have played for a final time in their respective stadiums.
The remaining Southeastern Conference teams will stage their home finales this Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
Alabama's seniors are an eye-popping 52-3 with three College Football Playoff appearances and a pair of national championships, and they enter Saturday's Iron Bowl with a chance to add to what could be the sport's most impressive four-year run ever. Georgia's seniors will be honored before Saturday's showdown against Georgia Tech having transitioned from the good days of Mark Richt to the even better days of Kirby Smart, and only the seniors at Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky and Vanderbilt have played for the same head coach.
No seniors have endured more adversity during the past four years than those at Ole Miss, who were freshmen when the Rebels capped a 10-win season in 2015 with a rout of Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl but have played mostly since then wearing NCAA shackles.
"I think this class has left a great legacy as far as passion and playing the game the way it's supposed to be played," Rebels senior left guard Javon Patterson said this week in a news conference. "The wins and losses may not show it, but we've gone through a lot of tough times to build things up together. We fought for each other and left it all out there, and that's a special thing."
Patterson, quarterback Jordan Ta'amu, receiver DaMarkus Lodge, cornerback Ken Webster and safety C.J. Moore will be among the Ole Miss seniors who will be recognized before Thursday night's Egg Bowl matchup against Mississippi State. Webster is a fifth-year senior who played on the 2014 Peach Bowl team and made a comeback following a gruesome knee injury during the 2016 opener against Florida State, while Moore has not been able to play the final two months this season due to a pectoral injury.
The Rebels are 5-6 but cannot attain bowl eligibility with a rivalry win due to their two-year NCAA bowl ban that began last season. Ole Miss is the only program in the SEC that is facing a third straight year without a postseason trip.
"For me, with all the stuff we've been through together, it's a really special class," Ole Miss coach Matt Luke said. "Every one of these seniors had an opportunity to transfer somewhere else, but they chose to stay here and do this together knowing they weren't going to a bowl game. They fight for each other. They fight for Ole Miss, and I appreciate everything that they've given and how hard they play through injuries and doing all they've done to keep this thing going.
"I'm grateful for these guys and what they mean to not only me personally, but also this program."
The NCAA began its investigation into Ole Miss and its recruiting violations under former coach Hugh Freeze in 2012 and reopened the case in 2016 after the surreal NFL draft first-round slide involving former Rebels offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil. The Rebels had the potential for another stout team in 2016, but they could not hold early-season leads against Florida State and Alabama and suffered through an injury-riddled 5-7 year.
After more violations were uncovered in 2017, the NCAA implemented a two-year bowl ban on the program last December that included scholarship reductions and the opportunity for players to transfer. Quarterback Shea Patterson (Michigan) and receiver Van Jefferson (Florida) were the most notable among those who departed, and those who stayed knew that the biggest thing left on the table was pride.
"We didn't want to run away from this problem," said Ta'amu, who has played at Ole Miss the past two seasons after starting out in junior college. "We wanted to stay and face it as a unit. We did this for our class, the team and Oxford."
Ole Miss opened this season with an impressive 47-27 thumping of Texas Tech in Houston, but the most memorable triumph these Rebels have experienced was last year's 31-28 upset of Mississippi State in Starkville. An injury to MSU quarterback Nick Fitzgerald played a monstrous factor in that outcome, but the Ole Miss win resulted in a 6-6 season that helped lift the interim coaching tag for Luke. He had replaced the fired Freeze before the start of preseason camp.
The Rebels are 11-point underdogs Thursday night, with their SEC-worst 213.8 rushing yards allowed per contest not exactly matching up well with Mississippi State's 218.9 rushing yards per game. Ta'amu said the Rebels are treating Thursday "like it's our bowl game," and it will serve as the final chapter of a tumultuous story.
After all, Ole Miss will no longer be in NCAA jail as of Friday morning.
"These guys who stayed decided to stay for a reason," Patterson said. "We formed a group and a brotherhood, and the phone calls we make to each other down the road will be special."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.