Jackson residents generally believe Democratic Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is doing a better job than Republican Gov. Tate Reeves dealing with the city’s failing water system, according to a poll conducted Thursday and Friday — but both received low marks.
Of the poll respondents, 34.8% found Reeves’ handling of the crisis totally unacceptable while 21.6% found it poor. Meanwhile, 31.3% found Lumumba’s efforts totally unacceptable while 15.2% rated it as poor. The poll found 35.6% gave Lumumba great or good marks while only 22.6% said the same for Reeves.
The survey was conducted by Blueprint Polling, a sister company of Chism Strategies – a Mississippi-based firm that has long done political and public policy surveys.
Blueprint polled 491 Jackson voters on landlines and cell phones this week. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4% and was weighted in an attempt to match the demographics of Jackson voters – heavily African American and Democratic. African Americans made up 84% of the respondents.
Jackson residents, based on poll results, were split on the long-term issue of how to fix the water system. Estimates put that fix at more than $1 billion, according to the city. The poll found 30.6% of respondents favored the state providing funds for the fix with the city continuing to operate the system, while 30.1% favored the creation of a regional water board. Another 20.6% favor a state takeover.
More white voters (40%) favor a state takeover while 24.2% of Black voters do. Black voters are not keen on the city continuing to run the system with only 32.1% supporting that option compared to only 21.4% of white voters.
The water system has been in a state of disrepair for years, but the problems intensified in recent days. On Monday night, the governor declared a state of emergency, citing the lack of water pressure throughout the city for many of the more than 170,000 customers on the system and the lack of safe drinking water for all the customers. President Joe Biden issued a federal emergency order later in the week, deploying federal personnel and resources to help state and local officials deal with the immediate problems, but not the long-term fix.
Jackson has been under a boil water notice since late June. The problems grew in recent days because of Pearl River flooding impacting the reservoir, which is the city’s primary source of water, and the inability of city officials to adequately staff the system’s water treatment plants.
The pollsters surmised that “we expect opinions to continue to evolve as voters learn more about the city’s recent management history over the Jackson water system.”
In addition, the pollsters pointed out the survey was conducted before U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents most of Jackson, weighed in on the problems facing the system. Thompson said on Mississippi Today’s “The Other Side” podcast that the state had not lived up to its obligations in helping maintain the system, but by the same token he would not favor the city having sole authority of the system unless it could demonstrate an ability to adequately do so.
Because of Thompson’s position as the only Democrat in the congressional delegation and because of his relationship with the president and his high ranking position in Congress, “ it is doubtful that any lasting solution will be reached without Congressman Thompson’s approval.”
Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel arrived at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant on Friday to provide technical assistance as Jackson restores pressure in its drinking water system.
“The funding is available to support the temporary measures to reestablish the (water) pressure but also to sustain that pressure while they’re looking at the more permanent repairs,” Criswell said. “What the emergency declaration does not do is support the permanent repairs for this facility.”
The emergency declaration also frees up funding to reimburse Mississippi for bringing clean water into Jackson, as well as for staffing the plant, she said. Criswell added while the declaration lasts for 90 days, FEMA can reevaluate during that time to decide whether or not to extend its support for a longer period.
Jim Craig, senior deputy and director at the Mississippi State Department of Health, said the pressure at O.B. Curtis climbed back up to 85 pounds per square inch (PSI) on Friday, but later dropped back down to 77 PSI because of a “chemical imbalance.” Craig clarified that the city’s equipment for measuring the pH and turbidity of the water before it enters the plant is not working, meaning that it takes longer for the operators to treat the water.
Craig also estimated that both of the plant’s out-of-service pumps, which led to water pressure issues for Jackson in early August, will be “back on site” on Sept. 9.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba warned that while progress is being made to increase water pressure, doing so may cause the city’s decades-old distribution lines to burst in the coming days.
Earlier Friday, Lumumba appeared with Rep. Bennie Thompson, White House senior advisor Mitch Landrieu, and FEMA Coordinating Officer Allan Jarvis at Grove Park, where reporters got photos of the officials handing out cases of water to a line of cars. Landrieu was scheduled to appear with Gov. Tate Reeves and Criswell at their press conference later on, but was not present.
FEMA Coordinating Officer Allan Jarvis (left), Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Rep. Bennie Thompson, and White House senior advisor Mitch Landrieu speaking to reporters at a water distribution event at Grove Park in Jackson, Sept. 2, 2022. Credit: Alex Rozier/Mississippi Today / Mississippi Today
Friday began with a miscommunication between the governor’s office and Jackson officials, who announced that Reeves and Lumumba were set to hold a press conference together that afternoon. Within an hour, the governor’s communications director Hunter Estes tweeted that the release was false.
“We have not invited city politicians to these substantive state press conferences on our repairs,” Estes wrote, “because they occur to provide honest information about the state’s work. We are investigating why they are releasing misinformation.”
City spokesperson Justin Vicory quickly let reporters know afterwards that there would be no such briefing.
The mix-up came a day after Reeves and Lumumba first appeared at a press conference together since this week’s water crisis began. The mayor called his presence there a “symbol of the unity that is taking place.”
Mississippi Today has partnered with WJTV to provide live streams and videos of press conferences regarding Jackson’s water crisis. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will give an update at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
President Joe Biden has nominated Todd Gee to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, a post that has been vacant since President Trump appointee Mike Hurst resigned in January 2021.
Gee, a native of Vicksburg, has served as deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice 2018. He previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., from 2007 to 2015, and before that as counsel and policy advisor for the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.
Gee, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, will take office as the federal government is reportedly investigating the massive welfare scandal in Mississippi, where his background in the Public Integrity Section of DOJ might come into play. The Public Integrity Section, created in 1976 after the Watergate scandal, prosecutes criminal abuses of public trust by government officials. It investigates and prosecutes alleged misconduct of public officials in all three branches of federal government, plus state and local public officials.
Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs said he was pleased Gee received the appointment.
“He is a great person for that job,” Flaggs said. “He has always been an intellectual young man. Todd Gee will adhere to the law.”
Flaggs said Gee’s grandfather, Nathaniel Bullard, served as mayor of Vicksburg from 1973 until 1977 and also was a chancery judge. He had another relative who was a district attorney.
“He comes from a family of lawyers,” Flaggs said.
The Vicksburg mayor said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of the 2nd District of Mississippi, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee where Gee previously served as lead counsel, supported the nomination and recently announced the pending nomination at a civics club meeting in Vicksburg.
Earlier Thompson wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice following Mississippi Today’s series The Backchannel, which broke new details on the welfare scandal. In the letter, Thompson asked federal authorities to specifically investigate the role of former Gov. Phil Bryant in the welfare misspending or theft.
“My understanding is all of the allegations that have been made are currently under investigation,” Thompson told Mississippi Today Friday when asked if the U.S. Attorney General had responded to his letter. “Actually there’s a report in the press that the FBI has already engaged some of the people … When the neediest citizens are compromised by what happened with the TANF (welfare) funds, we have to make sure that those perpetrators of that illegal activity are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Thompson continued: “I don’t care if you’re a quarterback on a football team, if you are governor of the state of Mississippi, or if you like volleyball — those things shouldn’t be spent and supported by TANF dollars. I have a very vulnerable district in the state. Those dollars were intended to make life better for families in need. I don’t know how those individuals who took that money can sleep at night knowing they took resources from the neediest people.”
Biden also announced two nominees for U.S. Marshal for the Northern and Southern districts of Mississippi. Michael Purnell, who has served many years with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, was nominated for the Northern District. Dale Bale, a professional protection officer for a private security service in Hernando, was nominated for Southern District Marshal. Bale previously served with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department.
All the appointments announced Friday require confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
Other key federal posts remain open in Mississippi. Biden has not announced a nominee for U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi.
Plus, a federal judgeship remains open in the Northern District. Judge Michael Mills of the Northern District announced in November he was taking senior status, creating an open judgeship.
Thanks to a longstanding state tax provision, Mississippians who are eligible for the Biden administration’s student debt relief will be on the hook for up to $1,000 in additional state income taxes next year.
On the federal level, student debt relief is tax exempt until 2026 due to a provision in the American Rescue Plan Act. But in Mississippi, where the state tax code differs from the federal government’s, the Department of Revenue plans to tax student loan forgiveness as income the way it does any form of debt cancellation — as income.
There’s a catch: Under guidance from the Internal Revenue Service, student loan servicers are not providing 1099-Cs – the tax form needed for filing debt cancellation – to borrowers or to state tax departments.
This means that many Mississippians will likely never receive the proper form to file student debt relief on their taxes. And while the Department of Revenue said it may send bills to those who try to skirt the additional tax, without 1099-Cs, it likely has no way of knowing if a Mississippian actually received student debt relief.
“That’s the big question, right?” said Angela Gonzales, a tax manager based in Gulfport who specializes in student loan taxation. “If you received student loan forgiveness, there’s gonna be no transactions through your bank history, no tax documents. So how far are they going to look into this?”
A Mississippi Department of Revenue spokesperson said that “direction has not been received and we are unable to provide a response” when Mississippi Today asked how it would know to send bills to state taxpayers who don’t pay the additional tax on student debt relief.
“I’m not aware of a governmental agency that will give us direction on this,” the spokesperson, Lexus Burns, added. “It is also the taxpayer’s responsibility to report their income even if they do not receive the proper documentation.”
One way lawmakers could solve this issue is by passing a bill to exempt student loan forgiveness from state income taxes – just as they did in 2020 for loans from the Paycheck Protection Program.
In fact, when it came to PPP loans, lawmakers went a step further than exempting state income taxes — they made them tax deductible.
Doing the same for student loan forgiveness, though, would require lawmakers to take action quickly in the 2023 session. It’s unclear how likely this is as state leaders Gov. Tate Reeves, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, and House Speaker Philip Gunn have not responded to Mississippi Today’s requests for comments.
Mississippi is one of the 13 states that could tax student loan forgiveness, according to the Tax Foundation.
The U.S. Department of Education will open applications for student debt relief in early October, so relief could be coming soon. That could be stymied, though, by Republican attorneys from several states who are working to block the policy through the courts.
“The fat lady hasn’t sung yet,” said Karen Moody, the president of the Mississippi Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Last year, Moody pushed for lawmakers to make PPP loans tax deductible – the logic being that Congress envisioned pandemic relief as a way to help taxpayer’s wallets, not penalize. Moody said MSCPA will consider advocating for lawmakers to do the same for student debt relief, but it all depends on if Biden’s plan actually goes through.
“I need to do more research,” Moody said last week. “This is barely out of the president’s mouth. But the cancellation of debt, from what I understand, is pretty clear cut.”
Department of Revenue says taxpayers must report student debt relief
President Joe Biden announced plans in early August to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for individuals making less than $125,000 a year, partially fulfilling a key campaign promise. The plan was swiftly decried by conservatives as a hand-out and by some progressives who said it didn’t go far enough to help low-income and marginalized communities most harmed by the student debt crisis.
The state Department of Revenue is empowered to tax student loan forgiveness as income under state tax code, even though it’s debt held by the federal government. If Biden’s student debt relief goes through, the department will calculate a Mississippian’s tax bill by adding the amount they received in loan forgiveness to their total gross income.
Yet it’s unclear how Mississippians will know to file student debt cancellation as income.
Typically, servicers – entities that collect student loan bills and keep track of borrower’s payments – send 1099-Cs to any taxpayer that has received more than $600 in student debt forgiveness. But earlier this year, the IRS told servicers they are “not required to, and should not, file a Form 1099-C information return with the IRS or furnish a payee statement to the borrower.”
Over the last week, Mississippi Today asked the Department of Revenue several questions about how it would tax student loan forgiveness without 1099-Cs. The department initially said it would send an additional bill to taxpayers who don’t include student loan forgiveness in the “gross income” category on their taxes.
“If the taxpayer that receives the cancellation of debt does not include it in his gross income, the DOR may increase the income as filed by the amount of canceled debt and send the taxpayer a bill for the amount due,” Burns, the spokesperson, wrote in an email.
But Burns couldn’t say how the department will know which Mississippians to send these bills to.
Gonzales, the tax manager, speculated that the Department of Revenue could request information from the U.S. Department of Education or even try combing through a borrower’s student loan history. But she said that the Department of Revenue typically only audits bank statements which wouldn’t show student loan cancellation.
To be sure, Mississippians who get student debt relief should pay the additional tax even if they don’t receive 1099-Cs. Gonzales compared it to a business whose profits are primarily cash.
“If I have a lawn care business, and I have customers who pay in cash, I’m not gonna receive a form for that but I still have to report that income on my tax return,” she said. “At the end of the day, it is still the taxpayers responsibility to report that income regardless of whether they get a tax document or not.”
Tax burden will be higher for Mississippians who were Pell Grant recipients in college
Due to the way Mississippi will calculate income tax next year, the tax burden of student debt cancellation is likely to fall more heavily on borrowers who were eligible for higher amounts of forgiveness.
Under theMississippi Tax Freedom Act of 2022, the first $10,000 of a taxpayer’s income will not be taxed but any additional income will be taxed at a rate of 5% in 2023.
At this flat rate, Mississippians who were eligible for up to $10,000 in student loan forgiveness will see $500 in additional taxes. But those who are eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief – because they came from low-income families and were Pell Grant recipients in college – will be on the hook for even more in taxes – up to $1,000.
Mississippi’s tax policy will also disproportionately affect the increasing number of borrowers – teachers, doctors and nurses among them – who are seeking debt relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Under PSLF, borrowers who work for a nonprofit or the government can have their loans discharged after making 120 qualifying payments.
These Mississippians are facing huge tax burdens because the loans they will have discharged under PSLF can be massive, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One of these Mississippians is Shekiba Brown, an administrator at a state-runnursing home in Long Beach. Brown held odd jobs – at a casino, a pizza shack, a Sonic, the YMCA– throughout college, but the pay was too low to help with tuition.
By the time she graduated with a bachelor’s from William Carey University and a master’s from University of West Alabama in 2012, Brown had accumulated more than $127,000 in debt across 27 loans.
“That was the only choice to get some type of education, for me,” she said.
Brown signed up for income-driven repayment, but her monthly payments never touched the principal. Around 2014, she learned that as a state employee, she qualifies for PSLF, so she consolidated her loans and signed up for the program, expecting to make her final payment in 2024.
Last year, Brown logged onto her servicer, FedLoan Servicer, and saw that, unbeknownst to her, she’d had more than $63,000 worth of loans canceled under PSLF. The Department of Education had made changes to the program that allowed some of her previously ineligible payments to qualify.
Relief washed over her, and for the first time, Brown started to think she would be able to pay off her loans entirely. The discharged loans also improved her debt-to-income ratio, enabling her to buy a townhouse in Long Beach for herself and her two foster kids.
Then Brown learned from a Facebook group for PSLF recipients that she’d have to pay state income taxes on her forgiven loans – more than $3,000, a sum she couldn’t afford. To be able to pay that much in taxes, she’d have to go on a payment plan.
“It’s forgiven, it’s like a prize,” Brown said. “I got the reward, but now you’re going to punish me for falling in the category of minimum wage, minimum poverty?”
Lawmakers prioritize tax relief for pandemic funds to businesses, landlords
At the end of last year, at least one state that doesn’t conform to the federal tax code took steps to exempt student loan forgiveness from income taxes. In December, Pennsylvania’s Department of Revenue announced it would not tax debt forgiveness for PSLF participants.
“These people have chosen to serve the public, and often in lower-paying fields, because they want to make a difference,” Gov. Tom Wolf said. “They don’t have thousands of dollars lying around to pay a one-time tax bill. So it’s wrong to take what should be a blessing and turn it into just another burden.”
In Mississippi, the Department of Revenue said that any changes to the state tax code would have to come from the Legislature – there is no administrative remedy. But so far, Mississippi lawmakers have focused on providing tax relief to businesses, landlords, and other for-profit entities that received federal pandemic loans.
In 2020, lawmakers amended the state’s definition of “gross income” to exempt from taxes a variety of pandemic relief, including PPP loans, rental assistance for landlords, and small business loans.
But lawmakers have not done the same for pandemic unemployment benefits – relief that, like student loan forgiveness, mainly helped low-income and marginalized communities and was also exempted from federal income tax under ARPA.
Since the pandemic started, lawmakers have made just one change to taxes on unemployment benefits. In 2021, Reeves signed a bill that allows individuals to elect to withhold state income taxes from their unemployment benefits.
Meanwhile, lawmakers have continued to add exemptions to state income taxes for even more forms of pandemic relief to businesses, like federal emergency assistance to restaurants.
Come next tax season, Gonzales said she thinks that many Mississippians who prepare their own taxes will accidentally not pay income taxes on student debt relief. They won’t know to – not without 1099-Cs or the help of an accountant.
When Brown learned she’d have to pay taxes on her discharged loans, she sought clarification from state lawmakers. She emailed several officials who represent her – Reeves, state Sen. Joel Carter, and state Reps. Richard Bennett and Greg Haney.
All but Haney ignored her.
Brown eventually got in touch with the Department of Finance and Administration which told her she needed a 1099-C. But her servicer never sent her the form to file student debt relief on her taxes, so she didn’t – no one told Brown she was supposed to anyway.
“I wasn’t hiding that money was forgiven,” Brown said. “I just wasn’t given the right information. Not anyone I talked to told me, ‘Even though you don’t get the piece of paper that says you need to file it, put it there.’ I was never told that I needed to wing it.”
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said the state bears some blame for neglecting Jackson for decades, but if the capital city cannot properly run its water system, “I would not be in favor of the city being given back the authority to run it.”
“Because it doesn’t make sense,” Thompson said in an exclusive interview on Friday with Mississippi Today for its “The Other Side” podcast about the continuing water crisis in Jackson. “Those negotiations (about long-term solutions) have to be fair. They have to include the owners of the system. But we want a system that meets federal and state regulations. Now if we see that Jackson can’t do it, then obviously we have to look at an alternative.”
Thompson, whose federal district covers most of Jackson, said, “I expect to be intricately involved in the negotiations.”
State leaders have been meeting privately this week to discuss long-term solutions for the capital city’s collapsing system as state and federal emergency crews distribute water to thousands of residents and make emergency repairs.
Proposals they have come up with include:
Creating a “regional water authority” to run the system, which also serves Byram and parts of Hinds County for water and parts of Rankin and Madison counties and other areas for sewerage.
Putting the city water system in a temporary conservatorship run by the state Public Service Commission, with the goal of passing the system back to city leaders after service has been restored.
Creating some new state entity or commission to take full, permanent control of the city’s water system.
Privatizing Jackson’s water system, leasing it to a private company that would manage it moving forward.
Thompson said he’s not going to opine on specific proposals at this point. He noted, “You can own the system and not operate it.”
But Thompson repeatedly said the city must be treated fairly in any negotiations on solutions.
“Years of neglect have contributed to what we have in Jackson,” Thompson said. “… Jackson has been treated differently than other communities. So there has to be give and take on both sides. I encourage that. But I resist with every fiber in my body for Jackson to be singled out just because it’s Jackson and being treated differently than all other communities and all water systems.”
Thompson said he has been talking with the mayor and other city leaders and repeated, “I have not seen a plan,” about a long-term fix for the water system.
“I’ve heard from the mayor and others that they have a plan, they’re working on it, but I have not physically seen a plan with my own eyes,” Thompson said. “I look forward to it. If it’s one that is verifiable, I’ll be happy to promote it. But, you know, I said a couple of weeks ago I was looking for a plan. And I say right now, I continue to look for a plan. And that speaks to management that I talked about earlier. It would be difficult to get the kind of resources needed to fix the Jackson water system without a verifiable plan.
“As soon as it’s completed, I would encourage that plan to be as widely distributed as possible because that would instill confidence in the public that something is actually being done,” Thompson said.
To hear Mississippi Today editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau’s full interview with Thompson, listen to “The Other Side” podcast, which will air starting Monday. Thompson discussed more about the ongoing conversations he’s had with city and state leaders, and he talked about his work as chair of the House Jan. 6 Committee and the ongoing welfare scandal investigation.
The 2022 Mississippi college football season, a sneak preview:
Sept. 3: Ole Miss clobbers Troy 41-14, and souvenir program sales set a record because even the most ardent Rebel fans need a roster to tell who all the transfers are. Mississippi State defeats Memphis 30-29 when a long Memphis punt return for the apparent winning touchdown is called back because of an inadvertent whistle. Southern Miss upsets Liberty 24-21 in overtime, spoiling Liberty coach Hugh Freeze’s (USM, Class of 1992) return to Hattiesburg. On Sunday, Jackson State whips Florida A&M 28-17 in the Orange Blossom Classic in Miami Gardens.
Rick Cleveland
Sept. 10: The Miami Hurricanes deal Southern Miss its first loss, 31-14 in a morning kickoff at Miami. Several hours later, Mississippi State rallies after midnight to defeat Arizona 29-28 on a last-second touchdown pass. In between, Ole Miss whacks Central Arkansas 38-13. Jackson State slams Tennessee State 37-20 in what apparently will be the last Southern Heritage Classic at Memphis, a long-standing rivalry game that JSU coach Deion Sanders famously has called “a hustle.”
Sept. 17: Ole Miss knocks off Georgia Tech 31-20 in the Rebels’ first visit to Grant Field since 1946, one year before John Howard Vaught became the Ole Miss coach. Mississippi State drops a 27-26 decision to LSU at Tiger Stadium, where Tigers coach Brian Kelly line dances, somewhat awkwardly, with LSU recruits at midfield afterward. Southern Miss rocks Northwestern (La.) State 34-10. Jackson State easily defeats Grambling 31-7.
Sept. 24: Will Rogers, who never met a pass he didn’t like, throws for five touchdowns in State’s 42-10 trouncing of Bowling Green. Ole Miss hangs on for a 27-20 victory over stubborn Tulsa. Southern Miss drops to 2-2 with a 20-17 loss at Tulane. Jackson State sacks Mississippi Valley State 33-7 before a second consecutive crowd of 45,000 at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Oct. 1: In a battle of SEC unbeaten teams, Ole Miss edges Kentucky 30-27. Texas A$M (that’s no typo) defeats Mississippi State 20-17, dropping the Bulldogs to 3-2.
Oct. 8: Mississippi State stuns Arkansas 42-41 in overtime. Ole Miss wallops Vanderbilt 38-14. Southern Miss falls at Troy in its first Sun Belt Conference game, 24-20. Alabama State, under first-year coach Eddie Robinson Jr. scares unbeaten Jackson State before falling 28-24 at Montgomery.
Oct. 15: Southern Miss wins its first-ever Sun Belt Conference game, downing Arkansas State 24-20. Ole Miss defeats Auburn 34-17. Auburn’s Board of Trustees polls its members afterward for the firing of Bryan Harsin. Mississippi State upsets Kentucky 31-27. Bethune-Cookman shocks visiting Jackson State 27-24, spoiling JSU’s perfect season.
Oct. 22: Ole Miss rallies past LSU 37-34 to remain unbeaten at 7-0. Mississippi State gets its annual 40 lashes at Alabama, 42-21. Southern Miss returns to its Super Back offense to defeat Texas State 27-20 on the road. Jackson State bounces back with a 52-7 trouncing of the Campbell Camels.
Oct. 29: On Thursday night (the 27th), Louisiana nips Southern Miss 27-24. Texas A$M (again, not a typo) knocks Ole Miss from the ranks of unbeaten 34-31 at College Station. Jackson State waltzes past Southern U. 38-7 at Veterans Memorial Stadium, but the halftime show is much closer with the Sonic Boom staying on the field an extra five minutes to a standing ovation.
Nov. 5: State wins 31-21 over Auburn. Auburn Board of Trustees can’t get a quorum for another coaching change. Ty Keys returns from a leg injury to lift Southern Miss to a 27-20 victory over Georgia State, moving the Golden Eagles to 5-4 and one victory from bowl eligibility. Jackson State travels to Houston for a 38-20 victory over Texas Southern.
Nov. 12: After a week of Nick Saban singing praises of Lane Kiffin, Alabama controls the ball for nearly three quarters of playing time in a 48-17 victory over Ole Miss at Oxford. Georgia thrashes Mississippi State 38-14 at Starkville. Coastal Carolina drops Southern Miss 34-27. Jackson State whacks Alabama A&M 44-10.
Nov. 19: Fred McNair and Alcorn State scare the socks off Jackson State before the Tigers prevail 29-28 in the Soul Bowl. JSU finishes the regular season with a 10-1 record. Arkansas runs to a 30-24 victory over Ole Miss, making the Hogs 12-3 all-time against Ole Miss at Fayetteville. Mississippi State routs East Tennessee State 41-10. Southern Miss – finally – defeats South Alabama 27-24 to become bowl eligible.
Thanksgiving Day: It’s 7-4 Mississippi State going against 8-3 Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl at Oxford. The Rebels successfully protect their home turf in a 41-38 shootout.
Nov. 26: Southern Miss slams Louisiana-Monroe 34-17 on the road to finish 7-5 and await a bowl bid.
With all this information – and two dollars – you can get a cold bottle of fresh spring water at your corner market. And, remember, you read it here first.
