LSU Streak: Rational or Irrational?

[ShotgunDawg]

SportsCenter ‏@SportsCenter 3h
The Ben Affleck Curse lives on! Red Sox lose to Astros, 5-3. Boston is 0-15 on actor?s birthday since "Good Will Hunting" came out in 1997.

I saw this tweet today and it got me thinking about rational and irrational streaks. Obviously, since the Red Sox have won 3 World Series since 1997, this is an irrational streak that is incredibly funny, but offers no insight about whether the Red Sox are good or bad team. It is just simply a random, irrational streak.

Upon seeing this, I began thinking about other odd streaks in sports and about whether or not the streak was rational or irrational. Here are few examples:

1. The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908. On the surface, this would obviously make you believe the Cubs have been an awful organization, but it begs an interesting question: If every year, beginning in 1909, you took all the players that played in the Major Leagues that particular year, put their names in a hat, and randomly picked 25 guys, would the Cubs have won a World Series in the last 100 + years? So... while the Cubs may have been a poorly run organization for the past 100 years, there is also some pretty bad luck that has gone into this.

2. Since the 2007 MLB Draft, the Tampa Bay Rays Amateur scouting department has landed two Major League players in the draft. In over 220 rounds of selections, all they have to show is a fringe ML outfielder and a reliever that they traded away. Obviously this trend could leave you to believe the Tampa Rays are not very good at drafting Major League Baseball players, but, at the same time, how much plain bad luck has gone into this? Is it rational or irrational? If the Rays threw all the drafted players, since 2007, into a hat, closed their eyes, and picked 220+ times, would they land more than a fringe outfielder or relief pitcher?

I say all this to ask: LSU has beaten MSU 14 straight times and 21 of the last 22. How much of this streak is rational and how much of it is irrational?

This is a conversation that the State fan base needs to have with itself.

On September 20, 2014, MSU will travel to Baton Rouge and engage in, possibly, one of the more important games we've played in the past 15 years. What is it about this streak that makes it so hard to break?

Obviously, it is clear that over the past 22 years LSU has been the superior football program, but there have been numerous years where we have had a team more than capable of beating them, only to come up short time and time again. Sometimes it's a close game and other times it has been a blowout, but it has always been LSU winning.

During this time, we have beaten Alabama 6 times, including 3 in a row at one point, when Alabama's program could be considered no less than equal to LSU's during that same time period.

We have had games where we have gotten the lead early, came back late, gotten screwed by refs, and all things in between, but LSU has always come out the victor.

Therefore my question is: Is this streak rational or irrational, and not matter what your answer is, why is this year different? Why will we win this year? What is different? Statistically, does it have to happen, even when it never does?

The MSU fan base needs to properly prepare their mind and heart for that football game.