Opinions on an Ideal Rivalry

[Shamoan]

also, my dad was a state grad. my dad was never really in to sports after his highschool football days, so my exposure to msu athletics was minimal. nevertheless, i went to state for my undergrad with zero pressure to do so while most of my metro jackson private school classmates went to ole miss. mra/ja/prep kids have a bad rap...sometimes deservedly so, but its a big misconception that most to all of them end up at ole miss. out of my graduating class of roughly 140, i would guess 50% went to ole miss, 25% went to state, and the remaining quarter went elsewhere. might be a surprise to some of you....then again, maybe not.

all that said, i went to high school with what even rebel fans consider some of their worst fans...the holier than thou elitists with little hate for one school one way or another from them directed to me and the classmates that chose to go to state. maybe i was calloused towards it and didnt see it, but most of them didnt give a rats ***. also, a common misconception about "prep" (mra, ja, prep) kids is that they are a special kind of wealthy....that simply is not the case. outside of a few outliers that are ultra wealthy, most of them are dual income families that want the best (and safest) education for their kids in the jackson area.

 

[121Josey]

I hate TSUN. Dad's family are TSUNers. Mom's family State supporters.

I don't talk football with my dad's family - simply pointless. I try to say positive things about the TSUN football team with my TSUN friends to show that I can give a somewhat objective perspective of the team.

I also hate the spin machines from both TSUN and State. The spin cycle at TSUN is what probably makes me hate them.

 

[rem101]

Is it possible? Yes.

But when the majority of the conference thinks the same thing, it starts to look like more than a coincidence.

 

[MSUDawg25]

I don't really hate UM except in the fun sports kind of way. However, I don't subscribe to the notion that we can both have sustained success. It is my opinion that a UM loss is good for MSU in almost every case. The obvious exception would be if we need them to beat someone else in order to get us a division title or something. I won't lie and say that I root for UM when they aren't playing us because it is my opinion that every game they lose in every sport is good for MSU. They are our instate, in-conference, in-division rival. We compete with them for every possible resource (money, 'cruits, press) in a state very limited in resources. If I didn't believe that them winning was detrimental to MSU, I could not give a **** less what they did.

Edit: I am very cordial to UM fans in real life. Hell, I actually work for UM. If they want to talk sports, I can talk UM or MSU sports with them. If they want to get into a **** talk battle, I pretty much just say "ok" and stare blankly at them. I am not going to damage my professional standing because of a few guys fighting over a ball.

 

[titus.sixpack]

I agree, Biscuit. I also attended both schools. My Father was in the service and we lived in LA when I graduated in the early 60's. I had never lived in Mississippi and the only school that I had ever heard of was Ole Miss. I found the general student attitude was arrogant and superior, obsessed with their parent's status. i never felt comfortable and after one year, I transferred to State and found that the students there could care less who your parents were or what they did for a living and accepted you for yourself. I love the school, as does my Wife, three children and their spouses. I have no appreciation for anything Rebel and will not pull for them.

 

[Resolved]

I pretty much agree with DS. I didn't marry into a Reb family, but several coworkers over the years have been Rebs, and my best friend in the world is a Reb. He despises everything MSU, as I do Ole Miss. We LOVE giving each other **** whenever we can, but one thing we've both learned the hard way: The pendulum swings both ways over time, so don't go too far.

I will say this, he was devastated by the Egg Bowl loss this year. And I LOVED that he was. It ruined their season, and he admitted it, which sorta surprised me.

 

[MSUDawg25]

its kinda sad too because we all come from similar middle-class circumstances.

Speak for yourself, 17er. I'm rich.

 

[MSUDawg25]

I don't really know where to put this, but I will just post it here and try to make sense of it. I think a lot of the "Ole Miss arrogance" is perception. Ole Miss has the law school and the medical school. Those are perceived higher professions. The rich girls go to UM to get their MRS degree because they believe they will meet a future doctor or lawyer there. The guys at OM believe they are higher class than MSU because they go to the school that produces the doctors and lawyers.

The fact is that people with MSU undergrads make more money on average than those with UM undergrads. A large percentage of UMC doctors did not go to UM for undergrad. A large percentage of UMC lawyers did not go to UM for undergrad. Congrats to UM for having those respectable schools, but they mean nothing about your undergrad school.

Anyway, point is that there seems to be this perception that UM is the "elite", and they certainly like to play up to it. However, facts say that MSU graduates are more successful by a significant margin.

 

[Vice]

I've got a hand full of Ole Miss friends and family that I hang out pretty regularly. And I will often times hang out with them to watch Ole Miss football on a Thursday night, or when State has a bye. Sometimes I pull for Ole Miss in football, depends on what kind of year they're having, how close we are in SEC standings, and whether or not my Ole Miss friends have been acting too 'Ole Missish' lately. And every State fan with Ole Miss friends know what I mean by 'Ole Missish'. I never pull for Ole Miss in basketball. And I usually don't mind pulling for Ole Miss in baseball (except against us or LSU); I want to see y'all do well enough there but I'm not ready for the Omaha acronym to become extinct either.

I'll trade a good bit of venom with my friends, but it's mostly out of fun. And I guess I just want ya'll to do well enough to keep them off suicide watch.

I despise anything OM. But what I despise more are Miss State fans that say they "root for Ole Miss when we aren't playing each other." Seriously. And what I really hate more are people that I know went to Miss State that are Ole Miss fans. Or vice versa. Just beyond strange to me.

 

[aspendawg]

I grew up 40 minutes from Oxford in a decent size town off of I-55. My father got his Masters from MSU after playing football at Delta State, my mother finished her degree at MSU, my sister and brother-in-law met there, and I graduated from there myself. There's only a few of my VERY best Ole Miss friends that I can tolerate to have a rational conversation with about both schools sports or invite to my tailgate. Other than that I generally can't be around most of them while a sporting event is going on because I will come unhinged and inevitably get tossed out or become to aggro.

I don't want them to win at ANYTHING... I just hate the whole mantra "We're just the redneck poor school" when I make more money at 29 than probably 99.9% of my Ole Miss friends.. Even all the way up here in Alaska if my girlfriend and I walk in somewhere and there happens to be a Ole Miss fan I immediately turn around and find another bar to watch sports...my girlfriend thinks I'm crazy.

My father feels the same way.
My mother feels the same way.
My Brother..
My brother-in-law..
My sister..

To top it all off. If something were to happen to my sister and her husband, GOD FORBID, then the kids would be left with plenty of money but the one stipulation is they can use it go to any public university except Ole Miss.. I can't make this stuff up. Don't blame my brother-in-law either, actually respect him much more for that reason.

 

[rem101]

That perception is well earned. I have plenty of friends that are like this, but I'm still good friends with. I've actually had people I've known for years go to Ole Miss and come home and suddenly their parents are millionaires. I tend to ignore it for the most part. I realize there are people at Ole Miss that have a **** ton of money, but that's everywhere. I personally know just as many at State and Southern Miss (#1 of the 10) that have just as much as any at Ole Miss. I also know people at State who act "better than you" because of it. It's just a more common practice in Oxford.

There's a particular teacher that's the worst in my town.**