I understand why your arguments for not playing USM. I know that you can get pretty nice crowds from all the excitement around the other SEC programs. I also respect that some are willing to admit that it basically boils down to is it worth it to risk hurting recruiting. To those fans who are man enough to be realistic about things, I applaud you. But this guy saying State is such a superior school is smoking the SEC crackpipe. In what? Engineering? Cow-Counting? I'm not here to argue that USM is the better school, either. I'm here to remind folks that academic quality has little to do with athletic budgets. How many football games did Harvard win last year? How big is their stadium? My point is, State is not Harvard. It is not Virginia. It is not North Carolina. They may be your BCS brethren, but you do not compare. State IS NO BETTER A COLLEGE THAN SOUTHERN MISS...PERIOD. And don't hit me with any half-*** tier rankings completed by survey and donation size, etc. Those things are about as legitimate as Fortune's MOST ADMIRED COMPANY lists.
State would have whipped us last year in football. Maybe they could again this year. They don't want to try, so oh well. Can't say that it isn't the right strategic move if they are indeed trying to go undefeated or lose 1 or 2 and get into a BCS bowl. But if you go back to winning 3 games a year, and attendance falls again, I fail to see how playing USM to a sold out crowd each year doesn't benefit State, too. State has an excellent basketball program to which USM is years from even comparing to. Baseball, we are pretty close in comparison. I would say over the past 10 years the edge goes to State. Football...I'll just leave it alone for now.
Ole Piss on the other hand holds the record for the single most delusional fan base in the history of college football. But having been to Tennessee and Florida in the past two seasons, I can tell you that their fans DID pretty much say that they view ya'll and OP as the bottom feeders of the conference. Especially Florida. Interesting comments considering that ya'll have played them mighty well lately, but their comments nonetheless. And Florida and Tenn ARE better schools than USM or State or OP.
USM fans are not all rabid about playing State nearly as much as OP. The only reason that people get so fired up and come on here is because we occasionally have to listen to some retard from State or Old Myth talk about how much better they are, etc. I would love to see us all play each other, but OP's Chancellor pretty much said they are scared, and Polk's comments recently flared up the discussion as to why the series ended. No more, no less. And in response to the comment about who's on whose boards....I assure you there are at least 2 to 3 State and OP visitors EACH....DAILY.
