Quote Originally Posted by Todd4State View Post
I don't think the Egg Bowl has to be a bad thing for either MSU or Ole Miss. I think what has really made it toxic comes down to two things:

1. Ole Miss having an ancient football history where they were a national power which gives them the belief that they can easily be or still be a National Power. The problem here for them is that was almost fifty years ago. And the only time that they have ever been able to really come close they had to excessively cheat or they had their iconic QB's son leading the team as a fifth year senior. They are brought up as fans to believe that they are the superior team in the state of Mississippi and Mississippi State isn't supposed to be good in football. Basically, in their mind it's their birthright to be better than MSU at a minimum and now that the reality is we have been better overall on the field since 1991 it has caused them to freak out and then I think that has caused them to go overboard with cheating. This whole transfer thing is just another example of trying to show that they are a "better" program because they can "take your (our) players if we wanted to".

2. Mississippi State for years having a "Poor ol' Mississippi State" attitude at the administrative level for years. If LT stands up to them in 2001 does Ole Miss's 2013 recruiting class happen? Maybe...maybe not. Or maybe more relevant would they have tried to take our players this year? People tend to push the envelope if they feel like they can get away with it. MSU has allowed Ole Miss to push the envelope a lot in football. And that has only fueled frustration from MSU fans- not necessarily towards just our administration and coaches like Ole Miss wanted- but also and moreso towards Ole Miss itself. That only makes MSU fans and etc. want to beat them even more which makes the rivalry more intense. With MSU standing up to Ole Miss now- I would imagine that it will make Ole Miss less likely to do something like this again. Or at the very least make it more difficult and make them think twice about it.

But I don't think it's necessarily bad to have a rival like Ole Miss although I definitely wish Ole Miss would act with more class and sportsmanship about it and not take things so personally. I wish they would try to make themselves better rather than try to just cheat to get better. That said, having the Egg Bowl brings attention to both of our programs and that has gotten highlighted more recently. As I have said before too- I think we should focus on beating Ole Miss and make it a priority but at the same time I don't think that has to take away from other goals that our program should have like winning the SEC. We probably are going to have to beat them to reach our team goals anyway. I do think it's a mistake to say "well, we're beyond that now and it just doesn't mean that much to us" because I think that's part of how we caught up to them.
Speaking of iconic QBs, in another 3 years OM will likely be right back into their glory days again with Arch Manning (Cooper's son). Apparently he was as good or better than Peyton or Eli as a HS FR this year. I guess the Manning family will still be churning out QBs a hundred years from now.