The sound and the fury

If you're planning an Oxford road trip to watch the latest "Game of the Century" and you don't have a ticket yet, well, plan to dip into the investment account. With Darth (Lane) Kiffin making his return to Ole Miss and both teams undefeated and national playoff contenders, tickets for decent seats on Sunday morning were in the $650-$750 range. Looking to view in style? Premium ducats are fetching well north of $1,300-$1,500.

Why it matters: Hurt Rebel feelings over Kiffin's December divorce, and calling Baton Rouge is amping to 11 what's already a heated rivalry. It's also making it the most expensive ticket in The Grove's history.

Hotty Toddy: This backstory is ripe for a John Grisham novel, though we're not sure there's an attorney in Oxford looking to rep Kiffin this week.

• The current get-in price is several hundred dollars higher than what tickets cost before Ole Miss's first-round College Football Playoff game against Tulane in December, and it's blowing past the cheapest tickets for the marquee 2024 Georgia game, which started at $243.
• No comprehensive historical database tracks resale prices for every Ole Miss home game, but this one appears destined to be the most expensive one ever played at Vaught-Hemingway—roaring past the $280 average asking price for the 2014 Alabama game that hosted College GameDay with Katy Perry.
• ESPN's College GameDay will be on hand for this one as well; no international superstar necessary to stir passions.

The bottom line: Let's defer to Oxford native and Pulitzer-winning author William Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun to sum this up: "The past is never dead. It's not even past."