The LSU and Ole Miss Football rivalry left its mark on the University of Mississippi’s campus and the town of Oxford this past weekend. The area saw bumper-to-bumper traffic, overflowing dumpsters and trash littering the Grove.
The highly anticipated LSU game day weekend was predicted to bring in larger crowds than average home game weekends due to former Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin’s dramatic exit from the program last season. These large crowds brought a high volume of foot traffic and left behind congested roadways and overflowing trash cans.
Tourism bureau Visit Oxford will release estimates for the number of visitors and economic impact of the LSU game day weekend by Friday, Sept. 25.
“Saturday’s game day was an unprecedented event for our campus,” University of Mississippi Director of News and Media Relations Jacob Batte said. “The combination of College GameDay and the football game brought one of the largest crowds our campus has seen, with people arriving overnight and early Saturday morning and remaining in the Grove through and after the game.”
The game day celebrations amassed record-breaking amounts of trash in the Grove and in the Circle, with cleanup efforts taking more than 17 hours. Cleaning up after a typical game day would only take about seven to nine hours.
“The landscape services team in facilities management anticipated a large crowd and placed approximately 2,900 trash cans throughout the Grove and Circle, provided trash bags at individual tents and arranged for additional dumpsters, contractors and volunteer support,” Batte said. “Even with those preparations, the volume of waste was nearly double the previous record set in 2012.”
Cleanup in the aftermath of the LSU game also extended through the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 21. Usually, cleanup efforts are fully wrapped up by Sunday evening. In a university email sent to the student body on Monday morning, the university explained the need for this extension.
“However, the record-breaking crowd size, the volume of waste and debris, challenging heat and weather conditions and the sheer footprint of this weekend’s activities have necessitated a significantly larger campus-wide cleanup effort,” the email said. “Together, these factors have extended the time needed to return campus to the condition our students, employees and visitors know and appreciate.”
After the game ended, fans piled into their vehicles to travel home. However, due to the sheer volume of cars on the road, traffic was at a standstill for a period of time, according to some students.
Lexie Hunsicker, a sophomore accountancy major from Jackson, Miss., dropped off her friend after the game and then drove herself home. On a normal night, this drive would have taken approximately 25 minutes. After the LSU game, it took her about two and a half hours.
“My commute was (lengthened) because of the traffic leading to the roundabout at Taylor Road,” Hunsicker said. “I also had to drop someone off and then get back to my apartment. That commute would only typically add about another 10 minutes, but it added over an hour.”
Hunsicker also said that Mississippi Highway 6 and Whirlpool Drive were backed up.
The Oxford Police Department planned to accommodate the larger crowds.
Oxford Police Department Public Information Officer Breck Jones believes OPD executed its plans and felt that the department handled Saturday night’s events well.
“Things never felt chaotic on our end,” Jones said. “We felt prepared and were able to manage things as they came.”
Jones also stated that the crowd numbers and behavior were consistent with what OPD had seen on past game day weekends.
“The crowd was happy since the outcome of the game went Ole Miss’ way, so that was great to see,” Jones said. “It wasn’t overly rowdy, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was consistent with most other game weekends.”
