Two MSU related articles from today's Columbus newspaper

[notsofarawaydawg]

Article in OPINION section (http://www.cdispatch.com/opinions/article.asp?aid=41326)

MSU AD article (http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=41329)

[Political Hack]

Opinion: "you're good, but still not as good as Ole Miss." Lovely.

[mstatefan91]

Opinion: "you're good, but still not as good as Ole Miss." Lovely.
I didn't take it like that as all. I took it as "good job SS and Byrne for bringing MSU out of the dark ages."

Seemed fairly positive towards us and what we are doing.

[Political Hack]

I didn't take it like that as all. I took it as "good job SS and Byrne for bringing MSU out of the dark ages."

Seemed fairly positive towards us and what we are doing.

"For decades, Mississippi State has been closing the gap on what was once a one-sided competition."

Fair

"But there is one gap that remains to be closed and it is an important one. Ole Miss is a recognizable brand, readily identifiable throughout the country. MSU meanwhile is a brand that, until recently, enjoyed name recognition only on a regional basis."

Not true. Most people don't know "who the hell are they" because flim flam bim bam nobody gives a dam.

"Until recently, MSU was about as generic a brand as you could encounter."

Fair, but not nice.

"The brand is growing and while it's safe to say that Ole Miss remains a more recognizable brand nationally, Mississippi State is closing that gap, too."

Again, not true. They may make national news for vandalizing JM's statue, but we're in the national spotlight as more, if not more, than they are when it comes to sports. I don't see them on sportscenter every night and truth be told, State dominated the national news this season when compared to them. Stricklin even made the point that we didn't have to share that magazine cover the 2nd time around. To me, it's a simple as comparing coverage of singing day on ESPNU to having a Heisman Trophy candidate. You know who wins that PR battle??? While dozens tuned in for the Ole Miss signing day war room, Dak became a household name.

[maroonmania]

I would fully disagree with this statement in the article: "Ole Miss is a recognizable brand, readily identifiable throughout the country". Maybe that is true with hardcore sports fans, but hardcore sports fans across the country know who both Ole Miss and Mississippi State are just like I know who Oregon and Oregon St. are or Arizona and Arizona St. even though they are not schools in our area. But when I talk to average Joe Blow outside of the Southeast they don't "readily" know who Ole Miss OR Mississippi State are, at least not from the perspective of sports. Neither have accomplished that much on a national stage over the years to be recognized. I can tell you, most people in other parts of the country that are of decent age know Ole Miss simply because of 60s politics that involved Ole Miss. And that is not a good thing unless you just live by the belief that all publicity is good publicity.

[mstatefan91]

Fair enough. I was taking it in the context of sports media recognizing brands.

[Coach34]

Ole Missus is a brand name nationally because somebody died in the 1960's putting James Meredith into school there- and thats the only reason. That is in every US history book in the nation. That is why people know Ole Missus

[Dawgface]

Ole Missus is a brand name nationally because somebody died in the 1960's putting James Meredith into school there- and thats the only reason. That is in every US history book in the nation. That is why people know Ole Missus

True. Some know of OM because of the Mannings. But that's about it.

[FlabLoser]

Nationally, "Ole Miss" is defined as some school in the state of Mississippi that has had a lot of racial trouble and was pretty good at football a long time ago with Archie Manning.

Nationally, people still don't know which school is "Ole Miss". Exhibit A: national media routinely confuses the two schools. "Ole Miss" is not a national brand. It is a point of confusion.

Kent State. Quick, what comes to mind? Race riot a long time ago, people getting shot. Where is Kent State? What academic programs do they have? How large or small is the school? What are the school colors? Do they play sports? Do they have a mascot? Are they a university or a college? Public or private?

"Ole Miss" shares a lot with Kent State. Everybody knows Kent State, but few people know Kent State.

[Bama_Dawg]

Their brand in some cases is based off of one movie, "The Blind Side". We just need our own movie out there, something positive, uplifting, and accurate (something that can't all be said for TSUNs movie). Something like, He15man (Heisman), the Dak Prescott story. If he wins it this year, that movie would blow up. Follow him from HS (maybe even before), to present day.

[maroonmania]

Their brand in some cases is based off of one movie, "The Blind Side". We just need our own movie out there, something positive, uplifting, and accurate (something that can't all be said for TSUNs movie). Something like, He15man (Heisman), the Dak Prescott story. If he wins it this year, that movie would blow up. Follow him from HS (maybe even before), to present day.

That's not really true, while OM has a lot of ties to "The Blind Side" the movie itself was about the Touhys and Michael Oher coming together in Memphis. Yes, it was pointed out in the movie that the Touhys are OM alums and that Oher eventually attended OM but its not like the movie was set on the campus of OM or something. Oher's Memphis HS got more publicity out of that movie than OM did. I agree with Coach34 on this one that the vast majority of OM's national brand come from the Civil Rights era politics.

[drummerdawg]

That's not really true, while OM has a lot of ties to "The Blind Side" the movie itself was about the Touhys and Michael Oher coming together in Memphis. Yes, it was pointed out in the movie that the Touhys are OM alums and that Oher eventually attended OM but its not like the movie was set on the campus of OM or something. Oher's Memphis HS got more publicity out of that movie than OM did. I agree with Coach34 on this one that the vast majority of OM's national brand come from the Civil Rights era politics.

I'm waiting for the game of change movie to come out.

[LC Dawg]

ESPN is doing their part for Ole Miss with "The Book of Manning" and "Ghosts of Ole Miss" even though if you really pay attention to Ghosts all its saying is that the '62 football team was just as racist as the rest of their campus. Meanwhile, we get a documentary on Croom that no one outside of the Templeton family even watched.

[DLGDawg]

"But there is one gap that remains to be closed and it is an important one. Ole Miss is a recognizable brand, readily identifiable throughout the country."

Others have pointed this out too, but I'll add my opinion.

When people see the name ole miss, they think about "old ways Mississippi". Its actually a bad for our state that people do recognize their name.

[blacklistedbully]

Nationally, "Ole Miss" is defined as some school in the state of Mississippi that has had a lot of racial trouble and was pretty good at football a long time ago with Archie Manning.

Nationally, people still don't know which school is "Ole Miss". Exhibit A: national media routinely confuses the two schools. "Ole Miss" is not a national brand. It is a point of confusion.

Kent State. Quick, what comes to mind? Race riot a long time ago, people getting shot. Where is Kent State? What academic programs do they have? How large or small is the school? What are the school colors? Do they play sports? Do they have a mascot? Are they a university or a college? Public or private?

"Ole Miss" shares a lot with Kent State. Everybody knows Kent State, but few people know Kent State.

Bowling Green - Ohio or Kentucky? I know Ohio because my best bud went there. But I'll bet most people outside the Midwest have no clue.

[Bothrops]

OM was not a national brand when lived out of state on east coast and on the west coast. Things may have changed some now, but "Mississippi bulldogs" is about all I ever heard. Chances are, people have heard 'Ole Miss' but not everyone knows what to associate that name to. Like I said, things have changed because of branding and social media, but this was in the 90's and early 00's. If it weren't for Michigan St. We'd be nationally branded as MSU.

[archdog]

Nationally, "Ole Miss" is defined as some school in the state of Mississippi that has had a lot of racial trouble and was pretty good at football a long time ago with Archie Manning.

Nationally, people still don't know which school is "Ole Miss". Exhibit A: national media routinely confuses the two schools. "Ole Miss" is not a national brand. It is a point of confusion.

Kent State. Quick, what comes to mind? Race riot a long time ago, people getting shot. Where is Kent State? What academic programs do they have? How large or small is the school? What are the school colors? Do they play sports? Do they have a mascot? Are they a university or a college? Public or private?

"Ole Miss" shares a lot with Kent State. Everybody knows Kent State, but few people know Kent State.

Didn't Saban play at Kent State?

[gravedigger]

"For decades, Mississippi State has been closing the gap on what was once a one-sided competition."

Fair

"But there is one gap that remains to be closed and it is an important one. Ole Miss is a recognizable brand, readily identifiable throughout the country. MSU meanwhile is a brand that, until recently, enjoyed name recognition only on a regional basis."

Not true. Most people don't know "who the hell are they" because flim flam bim bam nobody gives a dam.

"Until recently, MSU was about as generic a brand as you could encounter."

Fair, but not nice.

"The brand is growing and while it's safe to say that Ole Miss remains a more recognizable brand nationally, Mississippi State is closing that gap, too."

Again, not true. They may make national news for vandalizing JM's statue, but we're in the national spotlight as more, if not more, than they are when it comes to sports. I don't see them on sportscenter every night and truth be told, State dominated the national news this season when compared to them. Stricklin even made the point that we didn't have to share that magazine cover the 2nd time around. To me, it's a simple as comparing coverage of singing day on ESPNU to having a Heisman Trophy candidate. You know who wins that PR battle??? While dozens tuned in for the Ole Miss signing day war room, Dak became a household name.

Dissagree. Its the "why" that they are recognizable that is yhe getter.

What this year did was DIFFERENTIATE nationally the two brands. Weve been punished for years because we did nothing positive. But with 5 weeks at number one in the most hyped football season ever, we separted our brands. Not much, but enough.

Their image is, and always will be synonymous with the segregated south. They wont have it any other way and i wouldnt either.

[Maroonthirteen]

I would fully disagree with this statement in the article: Maybe that is true with hardcore sports fans, but hardcore sports fans across the country know who both Ole Miss and Mississippi State are just like I know who Oregon and Oregon St. are or Arizona and Arizona St. even though they are not schools in our area. But when I talk to average Joe Blow outside of the Southeast they don't "readily" know who Ole Miss OR Mississippi State are, at least not from the perspective of sports. .

It has been my experience, real college football fans know the difference between the two. People who casually follow college sports..... Don't know who is Ole Miss or "Mississippi " or the Bulldogs or Rebels or which school is in Jackson. I ran across people in Arkansas who would see MState garb and say they liked the movie Blind Side. True Story. As far as who is more recognized and accomplished, most Razorback fans have such little regard for either school that they don't even make the distinction when talking about either......."Mississippi schools".

[Bothrops]

It has been my experience, real college football fans know the difference between the two. People who casually follow college sports..... Don't know who is Ole Miss or "Mississippi " or the Bulldogs or Rebels or which school is in Jackson. I ran across people in Arkansas who would see MState garb and say they liked the movie Blind Side. True Story. As far as who more recognized and a accomplished, most Razorback fans have such little regard for either school that they don't even make the distinction when talking about either......."Mississippi schools".

Yep you don't have to go far to get those kind of responses. Most people in the US of A don't follow college sports at all. The vast majority.

[DancingRabbit]

"Four dead in Ohio" - If you were an old fart like me, or a Neil Young fan like me you would probably know Kent State is in Ohio and it was a Vietnam war protest not a race protest. A bunch of young, green Nat'l Guard troops were sent to quash the protest - they got scared at one point and started shooting students.

But, that's about all I know about Kent State.



Nationally, "Ole Miss" is defined as some school in the state of Mississippi that has had a lot of racial trouble and was pretty good at football a long time ago with Archie Manning.

Nationally, people still don't know which school is "Ole Miss". Exhibit A: national media routinely confuses the two schools. "Ole Miss" is not a national brand. It is a point of confusion.

Kent State. Quick, what comes to mind? Race riot a long time ago, people getting shot. Where is Kent State? What academic programs do they have? How large or small is the school? What are the school colors? Do they play sports? Do they have a mascot? Are they a university or a college? Public or private?

"Ole Miss" shares a lot with Kent State. Everybody knows Kent State, but few people know Kent State.

[Hotdawg66]

Growing up as a UGA fan and going on 50 yrs of age I have to somewhat agree with the article. Ole Miss was by far a more recognizable name when I was growing up. It wasnt until I got into HS and then college that I heard much about MSU and that was mostly due to baseball.

[FlabLoser]

That's the point, Rabbit. The general public probably also doesn't know the details for 1960's unrest at Ole Miss. Just that there was political unrest of the bad kind.

Hotdawg, I'd agree about perceptions that existed decades ago. But the article is about today.