Is it time for a radical solution for college football in Mississippi?

[dickiedawg]

The time for this discussion was when we were both struggling to make bowl games, not when they’re in the top 5 and we’re in the bottom 10.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Congrats. You made message board geniuses.

 

[Dawgg]

The disappearance of the dislike button continues to plague our society

Technically, it's the frowny face, but it doesn't get a lot of use. Thanks for reminding me though, I'm gonna go use that right now.

 

[AMereMortal]

Technically, it's the frowny face, but it doesn't get a lot of use. Thanks for reminding me though, I'm gonna go use that right now.

Yeah it just doesn’t have that same kick.

 

[SanfordRJones]

Some of you people have lost your 17ing minds. Winning a few football games will never be so important to me that I would ever want to join forces with Ole 17ing Miss. No thank you. I wouldn't join forces with those sh!theads to take on ISIS.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

Surprised they didn't mention how almost half of the board (and ED too) agrees with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Surprised they didn't mention how almost half of the board (and ED too) agrees with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So almost half the message board are morons. Got it.

 

[dorndawg]

Surprised they didn't mention how almost half of the board (and ED too) agrees with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How the hell do you get to almost half agree, when over 70% of this board are Indifferent to outright no?

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

How the hell do you get to almost half agree, when over 70% of this board are Indifferent to outright no?

Fuzzy math

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

You are a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-assed, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed, sack of monkey shìt.

 

[dorndawg]

Fuzzy math

 

[atomic dawg]

Why the 17 would we get into bed with those redneck aristocrat, non servant heart having SOBs? So we could lose our program due to lack of institutional control?? ( assuming that’s still a thing in the NIL era). So we can change mascots every few years? Do you like wearing seersucker and softening your syllables in the most genteel way? No. Just no. It’s gonna be a tough season but there’s no reason to even consider something like that. No. I don’t care if they are ranked. I don’t care if they win a championship. They’ll think it’s an accomplishment but we all know they bought their way there. Of course they have a leg up on NIL… they’ve had the bagman system in place for years. Losing seasons suck but there are no white flags. GTHOM.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Ole State Burg Colonel Bull Eagles.
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NAH!

 

[Hail State]

Chill out you bunch of losers. Yeah we suck this year. But if you think Ole Miss is any better off if a super conference forms you are delusional. They will go back to sucking salt next year as soon is Kiffin goes out the door.
Take a look at who holds the most wins over the last ten years. It ain’t ole miss. You think they’ll look at that or maybe which school has more viewers in a tv market. That ain’t ole miss either. But you queens think it’s who has the better 2024 season. Do better.

 

[Mr. Cook]

This idea is not new. People have talked about it for decades. But (((SNIPPED)))

Widespread peace in the Middle East will happen first*******

 

[patdog]

College football in this state is a pendulum. One school is good and thinks it can bury the other, and then it swings back to the other. It's been that way for decades, and while their NIL advantage is going to help them, it's not so far apart that they'll bury us forever. Ole Miss could easily collapse if Kiffin leaves them, for example.

This proposal ends that constant back and forth and puts everyone united on the same page.

It’s a new paradigm. With their NIL & commitment, we’re going to get buried like it’s was the 1960s if a lot doesn’t change soon. Like immediately.

 

[Msdeltareb]

This idea is not new. People have talked about it for decades. But I think its time has come.

A few facts to keep in mind:

• College students take a lot of online classes these days.
• Football players in particular take a lot of online classes.
• The NCAA allows players from other campuses of the same college to play on the main campus's team. For example, someone who took classes at the MSU campus in Meridian could play on our teams.
• Mississippi is the poorest state in the country, and it's one of smallest in population to have a Power 4 school (and unlike Nebraska and West Virginia, we don't have just 1)
  • Ole Miss is doing well in the NIL right now (top 20), but probably can't sustain it indefinitely. We are not doing as well, but combined we would be a top 10 NIL program.
• The state government has been talking for years about building a nice new football stadium in Jackson
• The rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State is toxic (though arguably not as much as it was last decade). However, most all of us here have friends who like Ole Miss, and vice versa. It doesn't need to be toxic.
• Depending on the year, Mississippi is #1 or close to #1 in NFL players per capita. There's plenty of talent here.

So you can see where this going -- we should consider dropping down to 1 college athletic program in the state, and get everyone unified behind it.

• The state would have to reorganize the university administration. We have 8 separate institutions, not 8 branches of the same institution. This would not be unprecedented - for example in North Carolina, there is the UNC system, and the main campus (Chapel Hill), NC State, Charlotte, Appalachian State, Wilmington, etc., are part of it.
• The football team would all need to live in Jackson and take online classes at whichever university they want to. This wouldn't be a huge change from their student lives for most of them though.
• I think it's safe to say the majority of fans in Starkville or Oxford most Saturdays would have a shorter drive to go to Jackson than to either campus.
• You can't call the team the Rebels or Bulldogs - you'd need a new color scheme that doesn't match any of the current universities. You'd need a new nickname too. But you could keep Bully, the Shark, etc., as the costumed mascots. Why not have a bunch of them? And the team would have to be just known as "Mississippi"
• The stadium could seat 100,000 and be near the top of the FBS in attendance.
• Instead of sniping at each other for players, we would be a unified state taking on the world.
• With the streamlining of expenses, there would be leftover money to add more sports, like men's soccer, lacrosse, etc.
• You'd probably want to do the same with basketball and everything else. Maybe keep the baseball programs separate so that Starkville and Oxford don't lose out completely.
• A lot of people wouldn't be happy when this was announced, but after a couple of years, we'd all love it.
• The SEC would be happy to go down to 1 SEC school but still keep the whole state engaged.

These are the cons I can think of:

• Both universities have spent a lot of money on stadiums that would no longer host games. Maybe they could play 1 non-conference game a year away from Jackson, rotating between Oxford, Starkville, and Hattiesburg or something. And maybe you could play state championships or even NCAA soccer games there.
• The student sections may not be as lively since they'd mostly be coming in from 2+ hours way. The campuses could probably pay to bus students in though.
• There's no guarantee we'll be a great program if we do this. Arkansas, Minnesota, and West Virginia aren't great programs. Nebraska is a shadow of what it once was. On the other hand, all of those programs would almost certainly be in a worse situation if they had to share their states with another power conference school.
• A lot of people nationwide would probably still informally call the new team "Ole Miss" and see it as a continuation of that program rather than a merger of all programs. We would need to make it clear that that's not the case.

Should we do this? Yes. I said we should do this 20 years ago. I said we should 10 years ago when we were both top 10 teams. But given the modern unregulated NIL landscape, we need the entire state to unite around the same program.

This is NOT a surrender. This is just recognizing the realities of the world we live in. Companies merge all the time. Sports teams in other countries merge. Mississippi would have the chance to be a national power.

If you want to shut down your football program and join ours Id be fine with shuttering baseball. I'm 100% not going to games in Jackson though.

 

[Chesusdog]

Me trying to get on board with a State UM merger.

 

[Chesusdog]

Surprised they didn't mention how almost half of the board (and ED too) agrees with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'll refer you to the George Carlin quote in the Finebaum thread.

 

[johnson86-1]

This idea is not new. People have talked about it for decades. But I think its time has come.

A few facts to keep in mind:

• College students take a lot of online classes these days.
• Football players in particular take a lot of online classes.
• The NCAA allows players from other campuses of the same college to play on the main campus's team. For example, someone who took classes at the MSU campus in Meridian could play on our teams.
• Mississippi is the poorest state in the country, and it's one of smallest in population to have a Power 4 school (and unlike Nebraska and West Virginia, we don't have just 1)
  • Ole Miss is doing well in the NIL right now (top 20), but probably can't sustain it indefinitely. We are not doing as well, but combined we would be a top 10 NIL program.
• The state government has been talking for years about building a nice new football stadium in Jackson
• The rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State is toxic (though arguably not as much as it was last decade). However, most all of us here have friends who like Ole Miss, and vice versa. It doesn't need to be toxic.
• Depending on the year, Mississippi is #1 or close to #1 in NFL players per capita. There's plenty of talent here.

So you can see where this going -- we should consider dropping down to 1 college athletic program in the state, and get everyone unified behind it.

• The state would have to reorganize the university administration. We have 8 separate institutions, not 8 branches of the same institution. This would not be unprecedented - for example in North Carolina, there is the UNC system, and the main campus (Chapel Hill), NC State, Charlotte, Appalachian State, Wilmington, etc., are part of it.
• The football team would all need to live in Jackson and take online classes at whichever university they want to. This wouldn't be a huge change from their student lives for most of them though.
• I think it's safe to say the majority of fans in Starkville or Oxford most Saturdays would have a shorter drive to go to Jackson than to either campus.
• You can't call the team the Rebels or Bulldogs - you'd need a new color scheme that doesn't match any of the current universities. You'd need a new nickname too. But you could keep Bully, the Shark, etc., as the costumed mascots. Why not have a bunch of them? And the team would have to be just known as "Mississippi"
• The stadium could seat 100,000 and be near the top of the FBS in attendance.
• Instead of sniping at each other for players, we would be a unified state taking on the world.
• With the streamlining of expenses, there would be leftover money to add more sports, like men's soccer, lacrosse, etc.
• You'd probably want to do the same with basketball and everything else. Maybe keep the baseball programs separate so that Starkville and Oxford don't lose out completely.
• A lot of people wouldn't be happy when this was announced, but after a couple of years, we'd all love it.
• The SEC would be happy to go down to 1 SEC school but still keep the whole state engaged.

These are the cons I can think of:

• Both universities have spent a lot of money on stadiums that would no longer host games. Maybe they could play 1 non-conference game a year away from Jackson, rotating between Oxford, Starkville, and Hattiesburg or something. And maybe you could play state championships or even NCAA soccer games there.
• The student sections may not be as lively since they'd mostly be coming in from 2+ hours way. The campuses could probably pay to bus students in though.
• There's no guarantee we'll be a great program if we do this. Arkansas, Minnesota, and West Virginia aren't great programs. Nebraska is a shadow of what it once was. On the other hand, all of those programs would almost certainly be in a worse situation if they had to share their states with another power conference school.
• A lot of people nationwide would probably still informally call the new team "Ole Miss" and see it as a continuation of that program rather than a merger of all programs. We would need to make it clear that that's not the case.

Should we do this? Yes. I said we should do this 20 years ago. I said we should 10 years ago when we were both top 10 teams. But given the modern unregulated NIL landscape, we need the entire state to unite around the same program.

This is NOT a surrender. This is just recognizing the realities of the world we live in. Companies merge all the time. Sports teams in other countries merge. Mississippi would have the chance to be a national power.

Just to pick out two problems,

(1) Having games in Jackson would be terrible. It would make it much harder for State and Ole Miss to compete for students if there weren't athletic events on campus. You could in theory have half the home games in Starkville and half in Oxford. Could even sell separate home ticket packages I guess. You'd have 3 or 4 weekends each fall where you'd have not just the Oxford or Starkville students on campus, but also a huge percentage visiting from the other school. So you'd basically trade off 3 small party weekends in exchange for teh 3 or 4 home football weekends being that much bigger.

(2) Even though most of the players time is spent in football specific activities, they still will want to be on a college campus. To the extent there was any appetite for making one team, you wouldn't be able to get an agreement for them to study in Starkville or Oxford for fear that the place with the student athletes would ultimately become the center of gravity. You'd actually have a better chance of getting an agreement for USM to be the home base for practice with games split between Starkville and Oxford. Then I guess you can let minor sports be split between schools. Maybe let each school have it's own baseball team and then split every other non-revenue sport.

 

[Wesson Bulldog]

**** that I'd rather be 3-9 for life than join ole miss. **** them. Their day is coming.

 

[prdubya]

I would rather watch my pet cats and dog get slaughtered and eaten by Haitians while being beheaded by the Taliban than to have anything to do with Ole Miss and their fans.

This is by far my favorite reply. Tip of the cap to you and your mule sir!

GTHOM. That is all.