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Ole Miss Rebels (official thread)

again, what other people think of our rivalry doesn’t affect the intensity or hatred of it.





here is where the SEC differs from the rest of the country.
that final week game isn’t even the most “hated” opponent for most of them despite what the national media attempts to push.

the vast majority of Bama fans i’ve known over the years list Tennessee above Auburn on their hate meter.
Auburn fans list Georgia above Bama.
LSU fans wouldn’t have Arkansas in their top 5 most hated.
I can promise Tennessee feels the same way about Bama over fucking Vandy.
same with Georgia choosing Auburn over VaTech.
Oklahoma would list Texas over Okie Sate (when they still played every year).

etc.

most of those end of year games were set by state governments and not by naturally becoming a hated rival.

Imagine if 100+ years ago the government of Ohio arranged for y’all to play Cincinatti (or some other state school) to end every season and the Michigan game had been in mid-October instead.

Michigan vs Ohio State would still have become “The Game”.
Cincinatti would not have become y’all most hated.

the games themselves and interaction between the fanbases is what makes it a rivalry.
not the date on a calendar.
not what fans in other regions think about the rivalry.
Quite the contrary. We had armed conflict over fuckin Toledo.

We won.

On the other hand, we have Toledo.
 
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There are some fine rivalries down south. I'm living the Springboks and All Blacks here...that is intense. I've lived in Texas and they are convinced that their rivalry with Oklahoma is bitter but it seemed pretty tame (that word may be sane) to me.

Living around the world and conducting cross-cultural research, I have come to understand that it is incredibly difficult to understand another culture unless you have lived within it for several years. Heck, Nick Saban doesn't understand it and he experienced the rivalry between Ohio State and TCUN as an Ohio State assistant coach. In an interview on ESPiN or Fox last week, he said he was stunned about how people in Columbus reacted to losing The Game and that Columbus people needed to do something about that. I'm sure that people in Columbus looked at him on TV and laughed in response.

The first ten years of our marriage, my South African wife--who understood the intense rugby rivalry between the Springboks and All Blacks--said that she could not understand how a normally rational professor could put so much emphasis on a game. Now, more than 30 years later, she understands that Ohio State - TCUN is simply a cultural thing that has an intensity few understand outside of the two states.

People talk about UNC-Duke in basketball. I was a visiting professor at UNC and I can tell you, on a scale of 0 to 100, where The Game is 100, what I saw was below a 50. I have extended family in Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana for generations. I don't see an intensity of rivalry among them. RugbyBuck lives in the South, ask him. It is qualitatively different for outsiders, but among us, it is what it is.

I suspect that the intensity of the rivalry arises from the border disputes in the early years of the American republic, when Ohio and Michigan went to war. Any of you SEC buggers live in a state that went to war with the rival state next door? Someone once joked that Ohio State grad General Curtis LeMay should not have stopped with two in Japan and dropped a third nuclear bomb on Ann Arbor. My wife was horrified that it was said in front of kids and that they could hate TCUN to that extent. I must admit, so was I.

To some extent, I agree with Saban's assessment that it's over the top. A part of me bristles when I hear Buckeye fans disparaging TCUN academics. I have professor friends at TCUN and I know them to be among the top 1% of scholars in our field worldwide (as measured in the benchmark Stanford University study). I can't imagine why a sports rivalry has to produce such negativity about a world-class academic institution. I don't understand why some Buckeye fans say the things they say.

But then, every year it's football season. The Game starts and I see the TCUN lowlife on-field behavior. The pushing, the shoving, the mouthing off after plays...and I want to see the Buckeyes plant those cheating, mouthy, classless bastards in the turf.

I don't see why there is any reason to compare rivalries. Forty years removed from the US, I'm watching that game with the same intensity sitting on the tip of Africa. I have Ohio friends and family watching in the UK, Australia, Colombia with the same intensity. My kids, born here and now here and scattered around the world, dress in Buckeye gear on the day. I can't count the times that someone has mentioned The Game, when they ask where I am from and I say Ohio.

So, I guess that I don't see why this North/South dynamic is emerging in this thread. We all love football. You think your rivalry is intense, well you have every right to think that. No one has the right to tell anyone what they should be feeling from their own experiences. But, I think ESPiN's poll of worldwide rivalries and my own experiences suggest that, when asked to name the most intense rivalry in college football, The Game will emerge front and center.
 
Problem for LSU is that you're entering ped state "not a rival" territory with Ole Miss. Their rivalry game is the No Eggheads Present Bowl. Why play second fiddle to MSU-Lite. Just be the bad ass biker gang without a rival.
i already said we don’t actually have a rival

it ebbs and flows through time depending on how each series is going.

pre-WWII, Tulane actually gave a shit about football. So that one was pretty heated.
but when they went on a 4+ decade run of not emphasizing athletics in any way it fizzled away and died.

LSU and Auburn went on about a 25 year run of lots of close games. Lots of strange “i’ve never seen that shit before” types of occurrences, some really ugly unsportsmanlike happenings in the field, etc. So for a while that one was up there. But it didn’t last and then expansion killed it off by us on longer playing annually.

LSU and Florida over last 30 years or so has become very hostile (but the conference took that away from us, so it too will die now).

LSU and Alabama for a long time has been a good series of games (not in the win column unfortunately, but a lot of damn good games). But i don’t think either ever really and truly “hated” the other. More just respected each other as opponents but neither kidding themselves about where each other stood on the totem pole.


Ole Miss is really the only one that pretty much was always there.
 
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Compare LSU-Ole Miss to Oregon-Washington, Wisconsin-Minnesota, Utah-BYU, Kansas-Missouri, etc. and other ‘hated rivals’. We’re not trying to pretend the LSU and Ole Miss programs don’t hate each other, it’s just not in the same ballpark as The Game.

If just folks in SEC country were asked to name the most heated rivalries within the conference, it wouldn’t get mentioned on equal terms with the Iron Bowl, the now-SEC Red River Shootout, the WLOCP, and probably a couple more.

And they will be one of your 3 ongoing every-year opponents, but the fact that it’s not the final game of the year, when the Golden Boot and the Egg Bowl are, gives it less of a spotlight, certainly on a national scale. You each have a separate, season-ending rivalry game.

I understand rivalries don’t have to be national to be intense; hell, Lafayette and Lehigh hate each other, but the fact that The Game has impacted so many Natty opportunities adds to its intensity. Playing each other 50 times when both teams are ranked definitely raises the stakes.
I honestly had no idea that Ole Miss had any rival besides Miss. St.
 
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There are some fine rivalries down south. I'm living the Springboks and All Blacks here...that is intense. I've lived in Texas and they are convinced that their rivalry with Oklahoma is bitter but it seemed pretty tame (that word may be sane) to me.

Living around the world and conducting cross-cultural research, I have come to understand that it is incredibly difficult to understand another culture unless you have lived within it for several years. Heck, Nick Saban doesn't understand it and he experienced the rivalry between Ohio State and TCUN as an Ohio State assistant coach. In an interview on ESPiN or Fox last week, he said he was stunned about how people in Columbus reacted to losing The Game and that Columbus people needed to do something about that. I'm sure that people in Columbus looked at him on TV and laughed in response.

The first ten years of our marriage, my South African wife--who understood the intense rugby rivalry between the Springboks and All Blacks--said that she could not understand how a normally rational professor could put so much emphasis on a game. Now, more than 30 years later, she understands that Ohio State - TCUN is simply a cultural thing that has an intensity few understand outside of the two states.

People talk about UNC-Duke in basketball. I was a visiting professor at UNC and I can tell you, on a scale of 0 to 100, where The Game is 100, what I saw was below a 50. I have extended family in Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana for generations. I don't see an intensity of rivalry among them. RugbyBuck lives in the South, ask him. It is qualitatively different for outsiders, but among us, it is what it is.

I suspect that the intensity of the rivalry arises from the border disputes in the early years of the American republic, when Ohio and Michigan went to war. Any of you SEC buggers live in a state that went to war with the rival state next door? Someone once joked that Ohio State grad General Curtis LeMay should not have stopped with two in Japan and dropped a third nuclear bomb on Ann Arbor. My wife was horrified that it was said in front of kids and that they could hate TCUN to that extent. I must admit, so was I.

To some extent, I agree with Saban's assessment that it's over the top. A part of me bristles when I hear Buckeye fans disparaging TCUN academics. I have professor friends at TCUN and I know them to be among the top 1% of scholars in our field worldwide (as measured in the benchmark Stanford University study). I can't imagine why a sports rivalry has to produce such negativity about a world-class academic institution. I don't understand why some Buckeye fans say the things they say.

But then, every year it's football season. The Game starts and I see the TCUN lowlife on-field behavior. The pushing, the shoving, the mouthing off after plays...and I want to see the Buckeyes plant those cheating, mouthy, classless bastards in the turf.

I don't see why there is any reason to compare rivalries. Forty years removed from the US, I'm watching that game with the same intensity sitting on the tip of Africa. I have Ohio friends and family watching in the UK, Australia, Colombia with the same intensity. My kids, born here and now here and scattered around the world, dress in Buckeye gear on the day. I can't count the times that someone has mentioned The Game, when they ask where I am from and I say Ohio.

So, I guess that I don't see why this North/South dynamic is emerging in this thread. We all love football. You think your rivalry is intense, well you have every right to think that. No one has the right to tell anyone what they should be feeling from their own experiences. But, I think ESPiN's poll of worldwide rivalries and my own experiences suggest that, when asked to name the most intense rivalry in college football, The Game will emerge front and center.

i was not in any way meaning to disparage the OSU/Michigan rivalry.

i actually looked up y’all history (records) vs other schools looking for a more comparable one, but didn’t see any that really matchup and have no clue what kind of hate levels y’all have for other schools so couldn’t really use anyone else.
 
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I honestly had no idea that Ole Miss had any rival besides Miss. St.

because really outside of the SEC, everyone else plays their main rival the final week of the season.

so even the national media and broadcasters don’t treat mid-season games as “rivalries”.

but the fanbases sure as shit do.

seriously, Alabama and Auburn don’t even consider each other their #1 rival.
you’d never know that watching the Iron Bowl though.

Sure, there’s plenty of hate there.
But ask them both if they could only have ONE permanent rival in conference and overwhelmingly Alabama would pick Tennessee and Auburn would pick Georgia.

Tennessee and Georgia would return the favor by picking those games as well.

Georgia would choose Auburn over Georgia Tech too if one of those games had to go away.

LSU-Arkansas was forced down our throats with that ugly ass boot trophy and the Black Friday date.
But ask LSU fans to rank what SEC game do they never want to go away, and Arkansas may not finish in the top 5 of the poll.

even the new guys Texas and OU.
both of the let their in-state final game of the season go away (A&M v Texas is back obviously) but they made sure they were a package deal across conference realignments and expansion to make damn sure that game didn’t go away.
 
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Hell, it was only a few years ago that I realized Ole Miss and Miss St. weren't the same damn place.

I've never been to Oxford (yet), but I have gone to Starkville.

and I'm not even slightly exaggerating when I say it was like going back in time.
That place is legit still Mayberry (if Mayberry was a trailer park).

it is absolutely small town USA.
and the people there are ridiculously friendly and polite to a fault. Like almost creepy how genuinely nice those guys are.

judging by the people who travel to Baton Rouge from Oxford, and the Ole Miss grads I've met over the years (I could tell you some disturbing stories from some of those guys) traveling the south for Cattle Sales, Oxford is definitely NOT that. at all. in any way.

good lord those guys have a very high opinion of themselves.
and are very very open about it. will voluntarily tell you how perfect they are.
 
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I've never been to Oxford (yet), but I have gone to Starkville.

and I'm not even slightly exaggerating when I say it was like going back in time.
That place is legit still Mayberry (if Mayberry was a trailer park).

it is absolutely small town USA.
and the people there are ridiculously friendly and polite to a fault. Like almost creepy how genuinely nice those guys are.

judging by the people who travel to Baton Rouge from Oxford, and the Ole Miss grads I've met over the years (I could tell you some disturbing stories from some of those guys) traveling the south for Cattle Sales, Oxford is definitely NOT that. at all. in any way.

good lord those guys have a very high opinion of themselves.
and are very very open about it. will voluntarily tell you how perfect they are.
This type of info is why I love BP
 
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what?
I hope you don't think people outside of tOSU/Michigan fans pass down stories of The Game from generation to generation. because we don't.

you're also kidding yourself if you don't think other schools view their big rivalry series with the same enthusiasm and hate as y'all and Michigan.

just because people in Ohio don't give a shit about LSU/Ole Miss, doesn't mean we don't.
Cmon now
 
Upvote 0
There are some fine rivalries down south. I'm living the Springboks and All Blacks here...that is intense. I've lived in Texas and they are convinced that their rivalry with Oklahoma is bitter but it seemed pretty tame (that word may be sane) to me.

Living around the world and conducting cross-cultural research, I have come to understand that it is incredibly difficult to understand another culture unless you have lived within it for several years. Heck, Nick Saban doesn't understand it and he experienced the rivalry between Ohio State and TCUN as an Ohio State assistant coach. In an interview on ESPiN or Fox last week, he said he was stunned about how people in Columbus reacted to losing The Game and that Columbus people needed to do something about that. I'm sure that people in Columbus looked at him on TV and laughed in response.

The first ten years of our marriage, my South African wife--who understood the intense rugby rivalry between the Springboks and All Blacks--said that she could not understand how a normally rational professor could put so much emphasis on a game. Now, more than 30 years later, she understands that Ohio State - TCUN is simply a cultural thing that has an intensity few understand outside of the two states.

People talk about UNC-Duke in basketball. I was a visiting professor at UNC and I can tell you, on a scale of 0 to 100, where The Game is 100, what I saw was below a 50. I have extended family in Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana for generations. I don't see an intensity of rivalry among them. RugbyBuck lives in the South, ask him. It is qualitatively different for outsiders, but among us, it is what it is.

I suspect that the intensity of the rivalry arises from the border disputes in the early years of the American republic, when Ohio and Michigan went to war. Any of you SEC buggers live in a state that went to war with the rival state next door? Someone once joked that Ohio State grad General Curtis LeMay should not have stopped with two in Japan and dropped a third nuclear bomb on Ann Arbor. My wife was horrified that it was said in front of kids and that they could hate TCUN to that extent. I must admit, so was I.

To some extent, I agree with Saban's assessment that it's over the top. A part of me bristles when I hear Buckeye fans disparaging TCUN academics. I have professor friends at TCUN and I know them to be among the top 1% of scholars in our field worldwide (as measured in the benchmark Stanford University study). I can't imagine why a sports rivalry has to produce such negativity about a world-class academic institution. I don't understand why some Buckeye fans say the things they say.

But then, every year it's football season. The Game starts and I see the TCUN lowlife on-field behavior. The pushing, the shoving, the mouthing off after plays...and I want to see the Buckeyes plant those cheating, mouthy, classless bastards in the turf.

I don't see why there is any reason to compare rivalries. Forty years removed from the US, I'm watching that game with the same intensity sitting on the tip of Africa. I have Ohio friends and family watching in the UK, Australia, Colombia with the same intensity. My kids, born here and now here and scattered around the world, dress in Buckeye gear on the day. I can't count the times that someone has mentioned The Game, when they ask where I am from and I say Ohio.

So, I guess that I don't see why this North/South dynamic is emerging in this thread. We all love football. You think your rivalry is intense, well you have every right to think that. No one has the right to tell anyone what they should be feeling from their own experiences. But, I think ESPiN's poll of worldwide rivalries and my own experiences suggest that, when asked to name the most intense rivalry in college football, The Game will emerge front and center.
To give this lovely little treatise it’s propers, I had to finish reading it in the water closet. Well done sir.
 
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