Not trying beat a dad horse but even Richard Cross agrees with me...

[NewTweederEndzoneDance]

No one is missing the point becuase of Richard Cross. Bogey and you are missing the point because the way that you build perception is to continue to win- not by playing Indiana.

I'll tell you what the perception is going to be right now once we play Rice- "Damn- MSU sold that place out! It's all Maroon. They must have good fans. Their team is pretty good too- they've been to four bowls in a row." And then after we skulldrag the nerds from Rice, our fans are going to be wooly and excited for next season. Watch.

The only people that will be down on it are going to be Ole Miss people.

You talk about perception being reailty- let me ask you this- those teams that Coach mentioned below- even notice how NO ONE calls them out on their schedule? Duke and Baylor get TONS of props from ESPN. Why would we be any different? The experts would look even more dumb than usual if they try to call out our schedule when we have to play Bama, LSU, and Auburn every single year. And that's why they don't call us out. That's reality.

You don't even seem to be talking about the same thing I am, which is growing the MSU brand. If you are fine with letting the SEC grow our brand for us, which your post right after this one seems to do by saying that being in the SEC is all we need, then that's your call. Not to mention you completely take what I am saying out of context by implying that I believe that "playing NC State automatically means we get more recruits". It's about exposure and expanding a brand. It's clear you missed that section of Marketing 101.