Much of it comes from the fact that when you compare our football records, there are a few years during which your season record was superior to ours, but on the whole, ours surpasses yours. Beyond that, however, there are differences that run deeper.
1. Cheating Coaches. Our cheater (Brewer) was in the traces for 11 years and managed a record of 68-55-3 (.5516) during that time. Your cheater (Sherrill) was at the helm for 13 years and managed only a break even record 75-75-2 (.5000). Bottom line... we even cheat better.
2. National Confusion. Throughout my time on the West Coast, people have come up to me after a State loss or victory and said, "Hey! Your team won (or loss) yesterday." When my reply was "No. We didn't play" or "Nah. We won (or lost)." They would say, "But aren't you Ole Miss?" My answer, "Yes," is always followed by "Didn't they play Oregon?" "No we played Auburn." "Oh. Who did I watch?" "State." In thirty years, not a single person has ever, EVER come up to me and said, "I watched Mississippi State" when they actually watched Ole Miss.
3. It's a frickin' Rivalry... sort of. I don't think I am supposed to actually acknowledge the fact that we are rivals. Apparently, nothing pisses you guys off worse than for one of us to deny the rivalousity between us, but it is there at some ephemeral level and that's what rivals do... they make fun of each other. It doesn't matter if I am a douche, I'm gonna call you a douche, too.
4. It's hard to watch either program stumble through the season. I swear before God Almighty that I only went to graduate school to legitimately claim another athletic program in times of greatest need. (I was originally accepted to UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, and USC. UCSB was named the Gauchos and didn't have a football program and UCLA had sissy colors so I chose USC... the PhD was a side benefit.)