Okay, here goes. "Ole Miss," a/k/a the University of Mississippi has called their sports teams, at least in the modern era, the "Rebels."
This moniker was a probably a tribute to Confederate veterans.
Until the early 1990's, Ole Miss fans waved Confederate naval jacks at games. They even had an enormous one, rather like OUr huge Oklahoma flag, they unrolled and displayed on the field before games.
Their fight song, was "Dixie."
The Confederate flag waving ended because it was deemed offensive by some Ole Miss folks.
Evidently, there is a move afoot to completely can "Colonel Reb," the old Confederate mascot. The "Colonel Reb" character has already been banned from the stadium.
Now this. The students have voted for "Admiral Ackbar," the rebel leader of "Star Wars" motion-picture fame to be the new mascot. That way, they keep the "rebel," but make him PC. Unless of course, someone is playing a brilliant innerweb hoax.