Elections Today
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Recent Projections
| State | Candidate | Delegates |
|---|---|---|
 Donald Trump | ||
Pennsylvania |  Joe Biden |
Mississippi State marches on
— -- Always in the life of Mississippi State, there has been Alabama. Ole Miss may be the Bulldogs' biggest rival, but right there, a short drive east on U.S. Highway 82, has been their biggest tormentor. And really, there is nothing else to know about the game Saturday, the most important in the 119-year history of Mississippi State football.
If the No. 1 Bulldogs defeat the No. 5 Crimson Tide, it will remain their most important game for only a matter of days. If Mississippi State leaves the field a loser, as it has 78 times in the 98 games between the schools, then the game Saturday may hold that designation for years to come.
"For many years, they've been the bell cow to which you wanted to measure yourself," former Mississippi State athletic director Larry Templeton said of Alabama. "It's been a one-sided rivalry."
Not merely in terms of the result. It's been a one-sided rivalry in the sense that Alabama fans don't think of Mississippi State in the same way that they think of Auburn or LSU or Tennessee. Alabama fans don't think of Mississippi State at all.
The schools are separated by 80 miles, according to Google Maps, the closest geographical pairing in the Southeastern Conference. Or by light years, according to college football history.
Alabama has won 10 wire service or BCS national titles. Mississippi State became No. 1 for the first time four weeks ago. Alabama has 19 players in the College Football Hall of Fame, Mississippi State has two. Eleven times, Alabama players have finished in the top five in Heisman voting. The Bulldogs have had one top-10 vote-getter in Heisman history: Shorty McWilliams finished 10th in 1944, when the war had stripped the sport of nearly every able body.
In those days, Alabama didn't play in Starkville, Mississippi. From 1933 to 1957, the teams played every year but one at Bama's Bryant-Denny Stadium. In the early 1930s, MSU's Scott Field seated 6,000, while Bryant-Denny Stadium seated 18,000. However, by 1948, the former had 35,000 seats, 4,000 more than in Tuscaloosa. But still, Mississippi State made the trip.
