I blame Mark Keenum

[War Machine Dawg]

Man you have no clue it's all I have to say

Prove me wrong, pal. Where are our Cigar Boys with the pockets to keep up? We don't have any. Our "Cigar Boys" have pocket change compared to the rest of the Cigar Boys around the SEC and other big time programs. I hate being the guy to say it's over. I've always thought there was a way for us to be competitive. But that path forward is gone now. It's all about money, and we don't have it.

[Coursesuper]

Prove me wrong, pal. Where are our Cigar Boys with the pockets to keep up? We don't have any. Our "Cigar Boys" have pocket change compared to the rest of the Cigar Boys around the SEC and other big time programs. I hate being the guy to say it's over. I've always thought there was a way for us to be competitive. But that path forward is gone now. It's all about money, and we don't have it.

You are right, I have worked for the Drummond’s, just one of them could buy all of us over and not really feel it.

[TheLostDawg]

Prove me wrong, pal. Where are our Cigar Boys with the pockets to keep up? We don't have any. Our "Cigar Boys" have pocket change compared to the rest of the Cigar Boys around the SEC and other big time programs. I hate being the guy to say it's over. I've always thought there was a way for us to be competitive. But that path forward is gone now. It's all about money, and we don't have it.

"We're a school that produces farmers and engineers. They aren't competing with oil, tech, doctor or lawyer money. Hell, the engineers mostly don't even give a damn about sports or donate to it."
Oil=you do realize you said we're an engineering school. It's called petroleum engineering
Tech- not quite sure what you mean as this category is very broad
Doctor- you do realize there are many doctors around the state that went to undergrad at Mississippi state. Just because they went to UMC for med school/ residency doesn't mean they pull for ole miss
Lawyer- same thing as "doctors" however MC and MSU just agreed to a program counting state undergrad credits for their law school or something to that extent.

As someone said in another post, ole miss is going things to get people involved, raising money which helps get players and build their programs up. The only thing I've seen is do is account the BI and try to raise money when Lebby agreed to coach us. We're way behind and I think all the people for stepping up but there has been a lot of bad decisions made with our athletic department lately. Hopefully it's getting corrected but the way things look, it's going to be a slow process unless they hire some big guns to come in and straighten things out,

[TheLostDawg]

On top of that, do you have a clue of how much farmers make? It's not chump change.

I get your point but our alumni base has money. Our administration just has done a really poor job in the past with marketing, keeping people on board, etc.

Hopefully Selmon doesn't take off and it's getting things together because it's a mess. We don't want to have an AD turnover like football coaching or we'll never get anywhere.

[StarkVegasSteve]

On top of that, do you have a clue of how much farmers make? It's not chump change.

I get your point but our alumni base has money. Our administration just has done a really poor job in the past with marketing, keeping people on board, etc.

Hopefully Selmon doesn't take off and it's getting things together because it's a mess. We don't want to have an AD turnover like football coaching or we'll never get anywhere.

The top 1% of farmers do make great money and we have a few of those in our fan base. But for the most part, farmers operate on razor thin margins and are not going to set aside 25-50K a year to give to the BI. Whereas lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc. have more of a regular pay cycle. Ole Miss has more of those degrees than us. However, we are catching up and have made ground in the last 30 years. This is also why I get pissed off at our alumni assc because they fail to reach out to our young alumni that are just starting out in that field. OM puts them in the pipeline the minute they walk across stage.

[Todd4State]

Prove me wrong, pal. Where are our Cigar Boys with the pockets to keep up? We don't have any. Our "Cigar Boys" have pocket change compared to the rest of the Cigar Boys around the SEC and other big time programs. I hate being the guy to say it's over. I've always thought there was a way for us to be competitive. But that path forward is gone now. It's all about money, and we don't have it.

Our cigar boys got us into this mess because they don't have a clue what to prioritize.

How you spend what you have matters.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Our cigar boys got us into this mess because they don't have a clue what to prioritize.

How you spend what you have matters.

Keenum hired Arnett in a panic. And to be fair, Arnett fooled us all in some ways. But Arnett was then duped into hiring our cigar boys boy BP and that was all she wrote

[BrunswickDawg]

The top 1% of farmers do make great money and we have a few of those in our fan base. But for the most part, farmers operate on razor thin margins and are not going to set aside 25-50K a year to give to the BI. Whereas lawyers, doctors, accountants, etc. have more of a regular pay cycle. Ole Miss has more of those degrees than us. However, we are catching up and have made ground in the last 30 years. This is also why I get pissed off at our alumni assc because they fail to reach out to our young alumni that are just starting out in that field. OM puts them in the pipeline the minute they walk across stage.

Our lack of giving long term has us so far behind some of y'all just can't comprehend it. Back in the mid and late 1990s I had 2 seats in what's now Section 21, about 30 rows up. I didn't even have to donate to the Bulldog Club to get them. Great for me because I was a young alum, lived in Atlanta, and was making shit money. My UGA friends were shocked that not only could I afford the tickets, but there was no donation. I had friends with similar seats at UGA. The family had had them for 30 years, and the cumulative donation to have them was $25k. Those are $100k cumulative donation seats now. And thy have a waiting list a mile long if you don't donate enough to keep them. There is not a single non-student season ticket in Athens that doesn't require a donation. Oh, and they just raised seats to $80 a game for 2025 and raised the base donation per seat.

That's where the rubber meets the road in the SEC - and that's what it will really take in terms of commitment needed by our fan base to compete. Want tickets? Donate. Want better seats. Donate a lot more. Want invites to coaches talks - it's gonna be a donation and not some traveling roadshow that stops at the Golden Corral in Natchez. And that goes across sports. That's how the big boys do it. Our fan base will never get this.

[BeardoMSU]

We need to face facts: NIL and the portal have killed any chance we had of being competitive. We're a school that produces farmers and engineers. They aren't competing with oil, tech, doctor or lawyer money. Hell, the engineers mostly don't even give a damn about sports or donate to it. As we just saw with DJ and Woody, any good players we have are going to be poached by bigger, richer programs. And because of the portal, players aren't staying anywhere more than a couple of years, making being a development program impossible. There needs to be a new term for whatever product we're seeing, because it damn sure isn't college football. It's semipro ball using the brands of universities to milk you dry for more and more money. We're a Mississippi team with barely any Mississippi players. Let that sink in. Of course these mercs with no connection to anything but their NIL paycheck are going to roll over and quit at the first tiny bit of adversity.

I agree with a lot of your post, except State being a school mainly producing farmers and engineers. We produce a ton of everything. When I was teaching at State (intro classes had a good representation of freshman/sophomores, I maybe had a handful of ag majors, plenty of engineering, but everything in between made up the majority). Only reason I made this point, is I feel this type of characterization of our alumni base acts in a reductive way. We have tons of grads who go on to law school, med school, graduate degrees, etc. Not to mention Veterinary Medicare (my girl!), architecture, or any other number of STEM fields.

Another major problem, however (which isn't the fault of MSU, and is an issue for MS as a whole), is a lot of these graduates end up leaving the state.

[Coach34]

On the positive side- the Miskelly's and Rula's have done so much for basketball its crazy. Let's not forget some others as well. Johnny Adams old ass (love ya Geezer)has also done alot for hoops. We had another Elitedawg that died a couple of years ago that did as well.

There are football and baseball guys as well I just havent dealt with them much. I know the Delta bunch has supported football and even women's basketball.

[basedog]

On the positive side- the Miskelly's and Rula's have done so much for basketball its crazy. Let's not forget some others as well. Johnny Adams old ass (love ya Geezer)has also done alot for hoops. We had another Elitedawg that died a couple of years ago that did as well.

There are football and baseball guys as well I just havent dealt with them much. I know the Delta bunch has supported football and even women's basketball.

RIP shannondog. Great guy! Loved Stansbury and have lots of money.

[TheLostDawg]

Our lack of giving long term has us so far behind some of y'all just can't comprehend it. Back in the mid and late 1990s I had 2 seats in what's now Section 21, about 30 rows up. I didn't even have to donate to the Bulldog Club to get them. Great for me because I was a young alum, lived in Atlanta, and was making shit money. My UGA friends were shocked that not only could I afford the tickets, but there was no donation. I had friends with similar seats at UGA. The family had had them for 30 years, and the cumulative donation to have them was $25k. Those are $100k cumulative donation seats now. And thy have a waiting list a mile long if you don't donate enough to keep them. There is not a single non-student season ticket in Athens that doesn't require a donation. Oh, and they just raised seats to $80 a game for 2025 and raised the base donation per seat.

That's where the rubber meets the road in the SEC - and that's what it will really take in terms of commitment needed by our fan base to compete. Want tickets? Donate. Want better seats. Donate a lot more. Want invites to coaches talks - it's gonna be a donation and not some traveling roadshow that stops at the Golden Corral in Natchez. And that goes across sports. That's how the big boys do it. Our fan base will never get this.

I don't think that it's our fans. It's the fact that no one has gotten this together and has been mentioned in many posts. Ole miss is doing all kinds of things to raise money and get alumni involved. Our school hasn't done much. Baseball trading cards, Maroon and Co partnership. I will say there was one golf tournament and I was hoping there would be a lot more things like that but I haven't heard anything since.

[SPMT]

I don't think that it's our fans. It's the fact that no one has gotten this together and has been mentioned in many posts. Ole miss is doing all kinds of things to raise money and get alumni involved. Our school hasn't done much. Baseball trading cards, Maroon and Co partnership. I will say there was one golf tournament and I was hoping there would be a lot more things like that but I haven't heard anything since.

Under Byrne and Stricklin our marketing, general entertainment, and aura have been down since they?ve left.

I assume this is the Cohen effect and subsequent hangover?

[StarkVegasSteve]

Under Byrne and Stricklin our marketing, general entertainment, and aura have been down since they?ve left.

I assume this is the Cohen effect and subsequent hangover?

The first day Cohen got the job he started slashing marketing and whatever marketing he kept he shifted it all to baseball. We let go TONS of really talented people during that time. Bob Carskadon and Derek Cody just to name a few. We also had a great video dept that Cohen just refused to pay a working salary so they all left. Cohen was a cancer to the athletic dept FAR MORE than anyone comprehended at the time. You could see it if you looked though. Cohen isn't dumb. He knew what he was doing the entire time and did not care. I mean the baseball stadium gets new speakers, LED lights, etc. and the football stadium(the sport that actually makes money on this campus) gets made to look like the left field lounge in the upper deck. He did not care about any other sport. He cared about baseball and baseball only.

Selmon is working to correct all of this, but it's not a job that will be done in a year, or even two. Cohen employed people that had no business making athletic dept decisions and gave them multi year contracts. I don't think some people realize how bad it was when Selmon walked in. He literally wanted to fire 75% of the people Day 1. That's why he's had to bring in so many people because we were doing almost nothing right and almost everything wrong.

[Cooterpoot]

Our school is located in the middle of nowhere Mississippi
We once played LSU in Baton Rouge 29 times in a 32 year stretch
We fired the coach that won our last SEC title
We hired Sylvester Croom as HC

Our school has been one bad decision after another since its very beginning

There's a lot of truth here

[Cooterpoot]

We need to face facts: NIL and the portal have killed any chance we had of being competitive. We're a school that produces farmers and engineers. They aren't competing with oil, tech, doctor or lawyer money. Hell, the engineers mostly don't even give a damn about sports or donate to it. As we just saw with DJ and Woody, any good players we have are going to be poached by bigger, richer programs. And because of the portal, players aren't staying anywhere more than a couple of years, making being a development program impossible. There needs to be a new term for whatever product we're seeing, because it damn sure isn't college football. It's semipro ball using the brands of universities to milk you dry for more and more money. We're a Mississippi team with barely any Mississippi players. Let that sink in. Of course these mercs with no connection to anything but their NIL paycheck are going to roll over and quit at the first tiny bit of adversity.

State premed produces more Drs than OM.

[BeardoMSU]

State premed produces more Drs than OM.

Exactly.

[TrapGame]

On top of that, do you have a clue of how much farmers make? It's not chump change.

I get your point but our alumni base has money. Our administration just has done a really poor job in the past with marketing, keeping people on board, etc.

Hopefully Selmon doesn't take off and it's getting things together because it's a mess. We don't want to have an AD turnover like football coaching or we'll never get anywhere.

My wife's late grandfather was a State alum and a farmer. His farm land is probably worth north of $10 million alone. His soy bean and cotton harvests raked in God knows how much. This man lived modestly but was worth a shit ton. He gave a lot to MSU, Holmes CC and charities.