Before diving into this morning's Ole Miss headlines please indulge me a couple minutes to describe some big, exciting changes coming to OMRebelNation.com.
First, I'm excited to announce OMRebelNation.com's first sponsor - Kirk Auto Co., in Grenada, MS. You may have noticed their logo in the new banner up above. For those of you who have been following me for the four years that I've been writing about the Rebels you know this is a significant event for me and for the site. I obviously love writing about Ole Miss, otherwise I wouldn't have been doing it this long, but having a sponsor will allow me to do so even more and better.
Those of you who have been following me a while now also know the website has bounced around a few times over the last year as I try to find the niche that works best for both me and you. I briefly attempted to go with a paid subscription model in the fall, and to be frank, it just didn't work. My personality and my style of writing just didn't lend itself to a web-subscription model. I realized that rather quickly and moved on to this site. I enjoy providing fun, entertaining and informative commentary on Ole Miss sports, and I want to be able to deliver it to you at no cost. It's what I've done for more than three years now, and what I will continue to do. You evidently like reading it because the page count on this site has grown beyond anything I would have ever expected, so thanks to you for visiting again and again. I hope you continue to do so. Because of your loyal readership Rebel Nation is now an attractive site for sponsors who want to have their businesses seen by tens of thousands of people across the state and region. I'm very proud that Kirk Auto Co., in Grenada is Rebel Nation's first sponsor. I'm also excited that Kirk will be the new title sponsor for my show Jake's Take on Rebel Sports Radio. Kirk has been around a long, long time and been a constant supporter of Ole Miss over the years. Kirk Auto will be delivering the Rebel Nation Headlines to you each day, and I'm glad that their sponsorship will enable me to continue doing what I love to do at no cost to you.
But there's more!
You may have noticed it in the new banner on the site. Rebel Nation is partnering with the publisher of Mississippi Sports Magazine (Pevey Publishing) to bring you a beautiful new magazine focused entirely on Ole Miss that will launch with the 2013 Football Preview issue. It'll be called Rebel Nation Magazine. Imagine a Lindy's or an Athlon's that's devoted to nothing but Ole Miss. That's what you'll see on magazine racks across the state this summer. It'll look something like this:
It's beautiful isn't it?
You can see why I'm thrilled about this new partnership with Pevey Publishing. Greg Pevey is a very talented graphic designer who understands the magazine industry and who can really make a book sing. Together we hope to bring you some fun filled summer months spent dreaming of the season to come with the aid of a colorful preview issue dedicated exclusively to Ole Miss.
Rebel Nation will be a bi-monthly magazine, meaning there will be six issues a year featuring Ole Miss sports. We'll put a heavy focus on football, but you'll still get lots of great basketball and baseball coverage, features on Ole Miss personalities and other human interest stories regarding the place and school we all love.
Very soon you'll see links where you can subscribe to the magazine. If you'd like to go ahead and subscribe now just send me an email (jake[at]omrebelnation.com) and I'll get you the information. The website will remain free, and will continue to have the content with which you are accustomed, but it won't contain the stories from the magazine. You'll have to subscribe or purchase it at one of the many locations it'll be available to read those, and I think you'll want to. With Pevey's design capabilities Rebel fans are going to want to showcase this beautiful magazine on their coffee tables and collect the issues. The internet can disappear into history. This magazine can stay in your living room as long as you'll let it. It'll be a fun way to collect and save memories of Ole Miss.
There are changes coming on the website soon that will blend it more with the look of the magazine, but the coverage and writing will remain the same. In fact you'll probably see more of it. We want the website to be the place Ole Miss fans go for current news and commentary. It'll remain free thanks to the folks at Kirk Auto, and I'll continue to have a lot of fun writing. I hope you have fun reading.
Thanks for patiently reading all of this. As you can tell I'm extremely thrilled with these new developments.
Without further ado:
REBEL NATION HEADLINES: