Ole Miss was left out of the College Football Playoff. Its consolation prize is a trip to Jacksonville.

Ole Miss announced Sunday that it has accepted a bid to play Duke in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Jan. 2 in Jacksonville, Florida.

It wasn’t the postseason assignment the Rebels wanted, but one they’ll take after a 9-3 season. Ole Miss finished No. 14 in the final College Football Playoff rankings that were released Sunday. Twelve teams were picked for the Playoff.

“Our team is one of the best in college football, and the game will serve as a memorable finale for this special group of players,” said Keith Carter, Ole Miss Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics. “The trip also provides an excellent opportunity to join our strong alumni base in the Sunshine State while competing in one of the nation’s most fertile recruiting grounds. We appreciate the chance to face a program like Duke on a national platform, and we expect the Ole Miss family to be well represented.”

This is the fifth season in a row that Ole Miss has earned a bowl bid. That’s the program’s longest streak since a run of 15 in a row from 1957-71. It’ll be the school’s fourth appearance in the Gator Bowl and first since 1991.

Ole Miss and Duke (9-3) have never faced each other in football.

Duke won its last three games and finished seventh in the 17-team Atlantic Coast Conference. Two of its three losses came against top-15 teams Miami and SMU.

The 80th annual TaxSlayer Gator Bowl will be played at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 2 and be televised on ESPN. Tickets are available here.

“We are grateful to once again take the field with this Ole Miss team — one of the best in the country,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said.

Other SEC teams who received bowl bids Sunday were:
• Florida (7-5), which will face Tulane (9-4) in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa on Dec. 20.

• Vanderbilt (6-6) is headed to the Birmingham Bowl againt Georgia Tech (7-5) on Dec. 27. It is Vanderbilt’s first bowl game since 2018.

• Oklahoma (6-6) will play Navy (8-3) in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 27, in Fort Worth, Texas.

• Arkansas (6-6) and Texas Tech (8-4) will play in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Dec. 27.

• Texas A&M (8-4) will head west to face Southern California (6-6) in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 27.

• Missouri (9-3) will take on Iowa (8-4) in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl in Nashville on Dec. 30.

• Alabama (9-3), which just missed a spot in the College Football Playoff, will play Michigan (7-5) in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa on Dec. 31.

• South Carolina (9-3) will play Illinois (9-3) in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 31.

• LSU (8-4) and Baylor (8-4) will meet in Houston for the Kinder’s Texas Bowl on New Year’s Eve. It’s the 12th all-time meeting between LSU and Baylor, in a series that dates back to 1907, but the first time they’ve played each other since the 1985 Liberty Bowl.

• SEC champion Georgia (11-2), Texas (11-2) and Tennessee (10-2) all earned spots in the College Football Playoff.

Tennessee will play at Ohio State (10-2), while Texas will host ACC champion Clemson (10-3) in first-round games on Dec. 21.

Georgia got a first-round bye and will await the winner between Notre Dame and Indiana in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.