“College GameDay” will be on hand for Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford.ESPN’s college football pregame show announced one month in advance that it would broadcast from Ole Miss on Sept. 19 ahead of that night’s game against LSU.The Week 3 tilt will be Kiffin’s first game back in Oxford after he left Ole Miss ahead of last season’s College Football Playoff run to become LSU’s head coach, replacing the fired Brian Kelly.Traditionally, the show announces future destinations on the Sunday or Monday ahead of its arrival on campus.Kiffin’s return, though, earned an exception and no debate over the center of college football’s universe on the sport’s third full weekend of games.Last season, Kiffin was rumored to be negotiating with LSU for weeks and reached a standstill with Ole Miss’ administration for days centered around his desire to coach Ole Miss through the CFP and the Rebels’ staunch refusal to allow him to do so.Kiffin left the then-ranked No. 7 Rebels, who later beat Tulane and Georgia before losing to Miami in the Playoff semifinals, to take over an LSU team that went 7-6 under Kelly in 2025.The result was another ugly exit for Kiffin, whom Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis skewered via overhead projector in 2008 after Davis fired him midseason. A year later, Kiffin’s late-night exit from Tennessee to USC after one season prompted small riots and fires across campus.USC fired Kiffin midseason in 2013 after a road loss and left him behind on the team bus from the Los Angeles International Airport to campus. Nick Saban also changed offensive coordinators in the middle of the CFP in 2017 after feeling Kiffin was too conflicted working for Alabama and Florida Atlantic, where he had just been hired as head coach.This summer, with his Ole Miss relationship already at a boiling point, Kiffin cited the school’s racial history in a “Vanity Fair” story, saying recruits’ grandparents wouldn’t allow players to attend Ole Miss, which wasn’t a problem at LSU.No. 11 LSU hosts Clemson in its season opener on Sept. 5, while No. 9 Ole Miss will play No. 24 Louisville in Nashville a day later. Ole Miss faces Charlotte in Week 2, and LSU plays Louisiana Tech before the two programs meet.