I'm Not Satisfied with Ole Miss' Reasons Why the Mascot Isn't Going to Be a Horse.

The Admiral.

As discussed before in this space, the Ole Miss mascot search has been a total disaster. First, they allow themselves to be beyond 'nerdish' in allowing the Admiral Ackbar saga to perpetuate itself for many months, and then they stick the alumni with these three sorry choices.

I am not an Ole Miss alum or student, but somehow I have ended up on the mailing list for all information regarding the Ole Miss Mascot search. Lucky me.

I had long been a fan of the Rebel Horse or Stallion, as I thought it'd be cool to have a horse lead the football team on to the field. Supplement that with a costumed horse, and you aren't doing anything embarrassing - which at this point, should be Ole Miss' only goal. Don't embarrass yourselves.

Today I have received the 'Committee's' reasoning for why they threw out my horse. And I am not satisfied. From my inbox today:

Since the top five Ole Miss Rebel mascot concepts were identified this summer in the first poll, the Rebel Mascot Selection Committee has been hard at work with the mascot design professionals developing designs to share with the Ole Miss community. The time is finally here for you to see these ideas and offer your input!

The committee could not be more please with the participation in the first poll. After receiving more than 1,000 suggestions and considering the results of more than 33 focus groups, the Rebel Mascot Committee submitted 11 mascot concepts to the Ole Miss community for input. Over 13,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni and season ticketholders joined the process, and 96% of them responded to at least one mascot concept in a positive way. Since that time, the student committee has been reviewing the concepts and holding them up to the values identified by the Ole Miss family as being important to the new Rebel on-field mascot. The Rebel Mascot Selection Committee has taken more time than expected to make sure the designs presented in this round of polling are respectful of the Ole Miss traditions and pride.

In doing so, the Rebel Mascot Selection Committee has eliminated the Rebel Lion and the Rebel Stallion from the list of potential concepts. Though there was positive response to the play on the words in "Rebellion" and "Pride of the South", the committee concluded that the connection to Mississippi and Ole Miss was not strong enough for this concept to be viable. Also, many were enthusiastic about a live horse as a mascot to lead the Ole Miss Rebels. However, because of limited space on the stadium sidelines and in other athletics venues, the committee soon realized that a live horse would, at most, have a brief and limited role at the beginning of each football game. As a result, this mascot idea ultimately turned on the appeal of a costumed horse to lead our teams during all games (including basketball, baseball and other venues where live horses would not be practicable) and to attend special events. Very little support for a costumed horse emerged in the focus groups and among the student committee, which led to the elimination of the Stallion concept.

Based upon the earlier poll, the Rebel Stallion and the Rebel Lion were the fourth and fifth most popular concepts. Thus, the committee was comfortable eliminating them based upon the reasons described above.

It's like these people live in a cocoon. Ole Miss, they don't take Mike the Tiger to Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge! The horse would have been fantastic. Little children could visit the horse throughout the year and take pictures. Every 3-5 years, a new horse is chosen. Copy from the Georgia Bulldogs, it doesn't matter. You could of had Rebel I, Rebel II, on and on.

So what that he would only be around at the start of the football game? It'd make it that more special. Run him out there, go up on two legs at midfield, and charge off. Then the costume mascot can handle it from there. That's not crazy - in fact, I think it makes a lot of sense.

And look back at that line, "...the Rebel Mascot Selection Committee has eliminated the Rebel Lion and the Rebel Stallion from the list of potential concepts. Though there was positive response to the play on the words in "Rebellion" and "Pride of the South", the committee concluded that the connection to Mississippi and Ole Miss was not strong enough for this concept to be viable."

And a Bear or Land Shark is more "connected" to Mississippi? Hey, Ole Miss, 'Land Sharks' aren't REAL!! There are less than 100 bears in Mississippi!

More from the email I received today:

It is the Rebel Mascot Selection Committee's greatest desire during this selection period that all parts of the Ole Miss community are aware of the process, and remain well informed about each decision. The committee members thank you for your patience and support and are looking forward to the end result!

Well, Ole Miss fans, nevermind that you may not be satisfied, at least you were informed throughout the process of how terrible this all is.

More:

Now for the fun part! The Rebel Mascot Selection Committee has three creative mascot designs for you to review: The Rebel Black Bear, The Rebel Land Shark, and Hotty Toddy. Your feedback in this phase of the mascot selection process is incredibly important. The poll results will greatly influence which concept becomes the new on-field mascot for the Ole Miss Rebels. As always, we value your input tremendously, so please give each design a chance to "soak in" and then give us your thoughts.

Yeah, tons of fun. You know why they want you to "soak in" the candidates, because any sane person, on first glance, should be disgusted by these choices.

What you're left with.

But notice that it doesn't explicitly say that the mascot receiving the most votes will be the mascot - it will "greatly influence". Could this already be decided? And if you're an Ole Miss fan, are you comfortable with that?

Considering how it's gone to this point, I'm not sure that I'd be.