Everyone wants to know why basketball is doing such bad or why football ended on a sour note. Well i feel that we have a major perception problem and this is what causes damage to our national picture. And unfortunately TSUN maybe one step ahead of us. We focus too much on them. And i mean that and do not deny that. After every Basketball game I hear fans say: How is Ole Miss doing so well to get in the NCAA and we are stuck in the bottom. We literally let the Egg Bowl Ruin the 2014 Season. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? WE WERE #1 FOR MORE WEEKS THAN ALABAMA AND WE ARE GOING TO WHINE ABOUT A LOSS TO THE BLACKBEARS??? A lot of people say they would take that win over the LSU win and you are being completely ridiculous if you say that. IF WE HAD NOT DEFEATED LSU WE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN #1 AND THUS WE WOULD HAVE ENDED A 10-2 SEASON WITH THE EGG AND NO SEC WEST AND NO ORANGE BOWL IS IT THAT MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE??? Ole Miss is falling down and if it wasn't for Bo Wallaces obsession to beat MSU then MSU would have won. With that being said we compare everything with Ole Miss from Football contracts, Tailgating, Baseball Stadiums, and Football Stadiums and that is our problem. We are two different University. If you hate Ole Miss so much why do you want to have "a nice baseball stadium like theirs" when we can literally create our own stadium that is 10x better than theirs without comparing. We need to focus on a new rival. Someone who has had success and would be great for us. And I present Alabama to you. I know what you are thinking: The Iron Bowl. We are not trying to be Auburn. We just need a better program to look as kind of what Ole Miss is doing with LSU right now. Not only is Alabama closer than Ole Miss but they are also better in every sport and party than Ole Miss will ever be. SO don't you want to play the best? Then why not Alabama. Second we need to talk about our third rival in football(or in all sports in general) and that needs to be Kentucky. I know what you are thinking and yes their football program is overlooked for their basketball program. Which is exactly why we should take advantage of the football rivalry in which we play every year with them. This past year MSU was #1 in football when traveling to Lexington and Kentucky was #1 in Starkville when traveling to Basketball. If we do this trust me our basketball program will get so much better because we have a program we can look to to build and compete.

Mississippi State does just fine being its own brand. Personally I hated all this "the Mississippi Schools" year or talk or whatever ESPN came up with. How offended would Auburn be if they referred to Alabama and Auburn as the Alabama Schools or Texas, TCU, Baylor, Tech, and A&M as the Texas Schools? If you want SEC Reporters to stop talking about Ole Miss then We have to do it first. For whatever reason media is getting money off of the "great 2013 recruiting class". But they have failed to accomplish anything real consistent while being there. In fact they seem more like September and then give up. Would you not rather go head to head with Alabama for SEC Titles and have that game year in and year out in November be the deciding game? I know I would and we did it in basketball so why not in Football or for that matter all sports?

Dont get me wrong I love the Egg Bowl and feel that it should be MSUs big instate rival game. However in Baseball I consider LSU #1 because they are program we need to build off of(Even though we are the reason for their success). In Football lets compete with Alabama. And in Basketball lets try Kentucky. We may fail but I would rather play with the best then play with the rest. And we will continue to play with the rest if we only focus on Ole Miss. Look at our Basketball disaster. Look at what Football was before Mullen got here. Look at how successful Baseball is since no one focuses on Ole Miss there. We need to start acting like the premier University in the State where every Mississippi Athlete is able to go to go against other states like Alabama or Kentucky. Lets finish it out without obsessing over Ole Miss and we will be the best "Praise the Lord and go Dogs!"!