By Jason Smith
Sports Editor

The last time Ole Miss won the Cotton Bowl, season ticket sales skyrocketed and Ole Miss fans set a record for season ticket sales, selling 48,000.

So far this season, the Ole Miss ticket office has seen similar results and have announced that season ticket sales are currently over 40,000.

In 2004, fans were reacting to the previous year’s 10-win season, victory against Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl and the belief in the hype surrounding Eli Manning’s heir at the quarterback position, Michael Spurlock.

This season there are no question marks at the quarterback position, and the biggest concerns sit on a solid offensive line that will have to replace Michael Oher.

Even with tough economic times, Ole Miss fans have responded by buying more than 40,000 season tickets, including the allotted amount for Ole Miss students.

Sans Russell, associate director of ticket sales, said that at the rate tickets are selling, it is likely Ole Miss will break last year’s season ticket mark by several thousand. They expect anywhere between 43,000 and 45,000 season tickets to be purchased.

The past two seasons, the administration has created mini-season ticket packages in hopes of luring more buyers, but due to the demand this season they no longer offer that option.

Senior associate athletic director John Hartwell announced that the university had exhausted its supply of north end zone tickets, but that tickets still remained for sideline and the south end zone.

Single-game tickets have also been discontinued for the Tennessee, Alabama and LSU games, making season ticket acquisitions the only way to attend those games.

This has led to fans of opposing schools to purchase season tickets in order to attend these three games.

“There may be some, but it may not be that prevalent,” Rodgers said. “It is really hard to tell– they usually just call and buy.”

The Rebels are coming off one of the greatest turnarounds in school history. In former head coach Ed Orgeron’s last season, the team finished a 3-9 campaign with zero SEC wins.

When Houston Nutt replaced Orgeron, he promptly led the Rebels to a victory over the eventual national champion Florida Gators and a shocking win in the Cotton Bowl against Texas Tech.

With the Rebels returning the majority of last year’s Cotton Bowl champion team, preseason expectations are high; the Rebels have been discussed in numerous preseason top 10 polls.

This has also boosted ticket sales.