<span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Memphis is the most underachieving school in major college football.</span>
Think about it. They are in the middle of one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in America. They are in a city with lots to offer (Beale Street, culture, stabbings, etc.) and they are in a cracker jack conference, yet for the most part they don't care about football.
Memphis is a lot like Jackson: Not only would catvet be scared to go to Memphis, the inner city thugs are their fanbase (just like JSU). But just like their massive alumni, that only works for their basketball program. Their fans are Tennessee/Alabama/LSU/Arkansas/flavor of the day fans during football season, and that's unfortunate. There are probably some "MSU football fans" that turn to Memphis during basketball season.
17 them.
Did you know that Memphis defeated both Peyton and Eli Manning during their respective senior seasons? That's a pretty cool fact. The way I see it, there are three other schools just like Memphis in major college football. Houston, Louisville and Cincinnati.
Louisville and Cincy were fortunate enough to head to the Big East, and both have played in BCS bowl games. Houston has had some good teams recently, and will probably have a shot at the Big XII in the next couple of years. But Memphis? Because they have disregarded football (firing their most successful coach and hiring a relative unknown comes to mind), they are stuck with pipe dreams of the Big East.
Heres a news flash, Tiger High, if the dominoes fall and conference realignment hits the fan, you'll be joining USM in the Sun Belt.
<span style="font-weight: bold;">2. That's a hell of a deal on Groupon.</span>
I love Groupon. My wife and I have enjoyed eating at great restaurants for a great deal. If you live in Memphis, you may have seen a great deal. 2 tickets to any Memphis Tiger home game for $10. *
*-except for the Thursday night opener against Mississippi State, we're going to charge $50 each for them.
I have no problem with the premise of charging more for a bigger game, but 1000% more? That's a little over the top - and par for the course.
You see, Memphis has been using us, Ole Miss and occasionally Tennessee as their bitches for several years. Remember 2000? We paid premium prices to set in 140 degree heat to watch State kick their ***. And oh yeah, the visiting team locker room happened to have AC trouble that day, and they forgot to make signage to change their water from $3 to $4 so they used a sharpie. They didn't forget the boxes to collect cowbells though.
This is why I hate playing at Memphis. Its the only road game where I feel like I'm being gouged. If all of their tickets were $35 and ours was $50 - no big deal, but when you can buy tickets 2 for $10 to every game except ours - that's ridiculous.
Guess they use the extra to fund their thug basketball program.
<span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Let's face it, they just suck. </span>
Their fans suck. Their stadium sucks. And their team sucks.
From Memphis fans talking smack in a game they are 27 point underdogs to the guy who screamed Go Tigers during the moment of silence for Keffer McGee in the 1997 opener.
The feeling that you need to be wearing kevlar to attend a game at the Liberty Bowl. We won't have this problem this game, but remember the cluster17 that was the '07 Liberty Bowl. Could barely move in the concourse all while MPD was in sniper towers around the stadium.
Memphis may have been the worst team in major college football last year. They had to play their best game against Middle Tennessee (a 6-7 Sun Belt team) while MTSU played their worst game to get their one win. In 7 of their 12 games last year, they gave up 40+ points.
And all indications are that they will be worse this year.
