We have two schools of thought. One says we get better by playing quality out of conference teams, and the other says we get better by playing multiple Little Sisters of the Poor. I guess neither opinion can be proved.
Being a realist about our standing in the SEC does not mean accepting mediocrity and buying sure wins. If we want to move up in the world we need to expect to compete with good teams. We're not talking about playing Alabama 12 games a year. I don't accept the idea that we have to be a bottom feeder in the sec year in and year out. If we're going to take that attitude we should change conferences. And there are conferences that we could dominate right now. Not because we play sec, but because we are better.
And I don't accept the idea that we have a crappy fan base. No, we don't have as large a population (or resources) to draw from as some of the elite programs. But, look at the number of fans (including complainers) who support this team year in and year out despite more than a few lean years. Compare that to other programs that start losing, and drop significantly in fan attendance. MSU has more than its share of loyal fans.
We're not going to dominate the conference every year, but we can and should be competitive in conference, and this program is capable of playing for the conference championship. We've played for a championship before.
You could say that I don't accept reality, but that would be a cheap shot (or it could be true).
Anyway, I'd rather play an Oklahoma State once and a while, than to habitually play powder puff u. I want a win where the team can feel like they've accomplished something.
Our team is not the train wreck our basketball recently was.
We played a good team.
We got beat.
Now let's get better.
we didnt play a good team, we played a great team...they most likely will win at least 10 games this year and are preseason favorites in the big 12.
as far as this alcorn drum you continue to bang, every single team in the sec plays an alcorn type team. just stop referencing alcorn, or if you are going to reference alcorn, please reference florida playing georgia st, georgia playing n. texas and app state, uk playing w. kentucky and alabama st, mizzou playing murray st and ark st, usce playing e. carolina, ut playing austin pea and s. alabama, vandy playing umass, austin pea, and uab, bama playing chattanooga and ga st, arkansas playing ul lafayett and samford, auburn playing w. carolina, ark st, and fau, lsu playing kent st, uab, and furman, om playing s.e. mst, idaho, and troy, and aTm playing sam houston st and new mexico.
also, why cant there be a 3rd option between playing top 15 teams or playing little sisters of the poor?
there are aq conference opponents that are tailor-made for us to play and that are on our level. try really hard and think about teams i am talking about. im sure if you apply yourself, you could string together a few teams that i could be referencing.
and if we accept our fate as one of the lesser schools, and one that has been firmly forged in the 100+ years we have been playing football, we should just up and leave the conference because we arent willing to risk a probable loss to an elite team? yeah, that makes sense.
how bout this, we neither schedule sisters of the poor for 4 games NOR do we schedule any games where we don't have at least a 50% chance of winning. since you have so much confidence in the program, surely you believe there is some type of happy medium in there....or let me guess, the only answer is proving ourselves in the baptism by fire that has been our ooc recruiting strategy far more often than not.
why do you refuse to acknowledge that teams like duke, wake forest, and a myrida of other teams exist?