Wasn’t that the show with Chris Elliot…?
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez told Wolverine fans to “get a life” this week. Yeah Rich, that’s exactly what you want. The hundred grand worth of fans that show up in Ann Arbor on Saturdays taking leisure classes or gardening or volunteering at a soup kitchen instead of packing your stadium and cheering for your team.
I don’t know how things work in Michigan, but in Baton Rouge we put our lives on hold for football season. We schedule weddings, births (not always possible, trust me), and other events around LSU football Saturdays. Several charities scramble to hold their fundraising events on bye weeks in order to get people to show up. And if an event has to happen on a game day then the game is incorporated into the event, such as my daughter’s birthday parties for the next 18 years.
College football fans are some of the most dedicated fans in all of sports, trust me Rich, you don’t want them to get a life. If they do, it’ll mean they’ve stopped caring and that’ll mean you’ll have to “get a job”.
Now we’ll test the true power of this fully operational battle station…
With ESPN’s new deal with the SEC and with the BCS, look for:
ESPN to finally push the SEC!
Just think such a move last year might’ve caused every single person on the ESPN Pre game set to pick LSU instead of Ohio State before last year’s BCS Championship, instead of the other way around.
No one remembers that do they?? Everyone picked against Ohio State at ESPN. Everyone, Lee, Chris, Kirk, Desmond, Mark, Lou, guest commentators, interns, the sound guy, the camera man, runners, the teleprompter guy………..!!!
South Carolina to become Dr. Lou’s main talking point instead of Notre Dame.
Fox analyst Charles Davis will jump to ESPN.
This isn’t really a joke. He’s not horrible, for some reason I like him and since Fox’s main network hosts about seven whole games a year, why not?
ESPN to all of a sudden be ok with this BCS format.
Which will prompt ESPN to hire the senior Jim Mora: “Playoffs!!!???? Don’t talk about playoffs!!! Are you kidding me, playoffs???!!”
Everyone else in the nation to hate the SEC even more.
Don’t hate….appreciate. Maybe the BCS championship could just be the SEC championship game. I’m just kidding.
Oh crap, does this mean LSU will have to play Mississippi State right after “Game Day” with Pam Ward announcing??!!
Please God, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Get Excited, It’s Magnolia Bowl time!!!
What, you haven’t heard of the Magnolia Bowl?? Why it’s been played 96 times since 1894. It’s the new name for the LSU-Ole Miss game. These two rivals hate each other and always seem to hook up late in the season. LSU and Ole Miss have taken turns spoiling each other’s seasons since the two schools started playing football.
This might not be a well known rivalry across the nation but the two fan bases are well aware of the history of hatred between the two schools. But since the game has lost some of the intensity through the years (mainly after those years ending in 50’s or 60’s), the game now has a new name.
The “Magnolia Bowl” was a joint creation by both school’s student governments in order rejuvenate the rivalry. There will also be a traveling trophy awarded to the winner every year.
That now makes three rivalry games that LSU fans couldn’t care less about:
1) The Tiger Rag: the LSU-Tulane game
2) The Battle for the Golden Boot- the LSU-Arkansas game
3) The Magnolia Bowl- the LSU-Ole Miss game.
Be on the lookout for other fabricated rivalries in the future like the Battle for the Platinum Overalls: the LSU-Mississippi State game.
Real rivalries don’t always need a name and a trophy. LSU fans are well aware the pest that Ole Miss has been to them in recent years and it would make the Rebels’ season to beat LSU just about every year. No need to try and dress this thing up.
Other fun facts for this weekend:
LSU will try for win No. 700 of its program’s history against Ole Miss. Only 11 other programs have won that many games.
This will be the first time since 1997 that Ole Miss has played at Tiger Stadium during the day.
Why does that sound familiar to LSU fans?? Because it was the week after LSU upset No. 1 Florida 28-21. LSU came out and followed up Gerry Dinardo’s biggest win with a crippling loss 36-21.
LSU’s win over Troy marked the 11th time in four seasons the Tigers have comeback in the fourth quarter to win under Les Miles.
The month of November has been very good to LSU. The Tigers are 20 for their last 22 in November games.
Houston Nutt’s last visit to Tiger Stadium was a win when his Arkansas Razorbacks beat LSU in a 50-48 triple OT thriller last season.
Prediction?... Pain
I didn’t like the LSU’s intensity exhibited by the team in last week’s game and the coaches did a poor job of preparing the players.
Maybe it was a one week brain fart and in light of it the Tigers will come out more focused this week, but inconsistency still runs amuck in the offense and defense in Baton Rouge. Ole Miss is not a pushover and even when they are, they’ll play the Tigers tough, it’s just the nature of the rivalry lately.
When it comes down to it, I like Ole Miss’s offense to put up more points than LSU’s offense. It’s plain and simple and a pretty disappointing senior day for the Tigers.
Ole Miss 34 LSU 28
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about 1 month ago
"South Carolina to become Dr. Lou’s main talking point instead of Notre Dame."
HA! Good luck!
from about 1 month ago
yeah i know, just thought i'd tale a shot with that one.
about 1 month ago
The SEC to get more love from ESPN!! Geesh... how much more could they get! I do remember everyone picking OSU last year. I was surprised to say the least. This Buckeye fan was cautiously optimistic about the game, very cautiously optimistic... oh well. I chalked up the Gameday crew's pick of Ohio State to the fact that they all have Big Ten ties. Corso coached at Indiana, Herbie was a Buckeye, Desmond a Wolverine, etc...
Charles Davis may jump ship, but I would be surprised. He has a pretty lucrative deal with FOX. He's their lead anylist and along with Marty Brenenman calls the featured game on the Big Ten network every week. Fox owns half of the BTN. Who knows though... ESPN has the dough to pull anyone away!
Great read as always!
from about 1 month ago
i didn't know that about davis or about the fact that fox owned part of the big 10 network. thanks for all the info.
of course with that comment i was playing on the fact that everyone outside the SEC thinks the SEC gets too much love and everyone in the SEC thinks all the networks hate them.
about 1 month ago
Charles Davis drives me crazy.
Proud dad picture is now locked and loaded for JG.
I'm pretty sure I could listen to Mora's playoff rant once per day and never get sick of it.
We can now edit comments!
from about 1 month ago
i think i don't hear charles davis enough, i get him once a year down here and he's not the other ones so i think i like him.
even though he's probably no fan of the SEC teams.
plus i couldn't think of anything else notable to detract from fox losing the BCS.
about 1 month ago
hotty toddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know I love you Justin but I had too! PS LSU will somehow rub that secret magic genie lamp and pull it out though! Not sure I spelled that right!
from about 1 month ago
TWSS!!!
from about 1 month ago
Careful Rei I read some stuff about them throwing darts at you this weekend!
about 1 month ago
OK, first of all I would like to say that your baby girl seems to be very frightened of you in that picture (which tells me that you have a normal, healthy baby girl....ALL females are frightened of you.)
Second of all, I would like to say that I agree with everything from the stupid rivalries to the prediction of the "Magnolia Bowl".
Great read!
from about 1 month ago
yeah i got a rep to uphold, females run the other way when they see me, but she can't walk yet so she's outta luck. plus my wife told me to remove my paper bag for the picture.
about 1 month ago
Another great write, Justin. It's good to have you back writing.
And you're picking your team to LOSE? Dang... I don't even know what to say to that.
I hadn't heard about ESPN finalizing the deal with the SEC. It'll be nice to actually have some nice SEC games to watch on Saturdays on the Family of Networks.
from about 1 month ago
thanks monk,
i've picked LSU to lose to auburn, florida, alabama, and now ole miss. i'm hoping to go two for four there.
(i picked them to beat UGA btw)
my being a fan doesn't cloud my objectivity on what i think will happen. i used to have some readers on my site that considered it sacrilidge (sp?) whenever i picked against LSU. it wouldn't be fun and would get old if i picked my team to win all the time. doesn't mean i want them to win any less.
from about 1 month ago
Good point. I applaud your ability to do that because I always say Nebraska will win. Recently, they haven't, more often than not apparently.
from about 1 month ago
well pelini's a good fit and i think you guys will turn it around.
quick story, i grew up in the 80's so my knowledge of nebraska was the two times they blew out LSU in the sugar bowl. combine that and their prominence in the 80's and 90's and i grew up hating the huskers. but since then, getting to know some fans and the reputation of their fan base, i've started to like them recently. hiring pelini was the cherry on top b/c i want to see bo do well.
i actually started to like nebraska fans when all the NU fan in omaha would welcome the LSU fans for the CWS and would cheer for LSU since they had the most fun with LSU fans through the years.
go big red.
about 1 month ago
Great and fun read. There is some hatred around the country against SEC, but I think many of them are closet fan's who really love watching real CFB. :) The profile pic is absolutely great - my wife and daughter were clapping when they saw the little princess. This POTD is for her!
from about 1 month ago
thanks double G. looking fwd to your next article whenever that may be.
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