Kc, you are getting me wrong. I am not asking for membership to the SEC. Does Clorado State ever beat Colorado? Has Colorado come closer to winning a national championship than LSU since '58? And you are right about more of the in-state guys staying home now. But, some do leave. One off the top of my head, who is the quarterback for what might be the best team in the country, Miami? Point 2, population is bigger in some states but that, to me, does not say that there is a shortage of players that could stay home. That goes with my point about Miami.
Marshall's plan was to get into a weak conference and dominate, Tech had no such opprortunity for a while. The win against Kansas State this year is the only win they have against a top notch team. Are you saying Tech needs to quit playing LSU, Miami, Alabama, Auburn and play ULL, ULM, Kent State? Maybe that is the way to go in the short run, but they do need to survive and pay bills.
i think that the more successful LSU becomes, the better the other in state schools will fair. I say this because the better LSU gets, the more out of state prospects will come to Baton Rouge....Thus freeing up more quality Louisiana atheletes for the other in-state schools. Great atheletes that would have gone to LSU will now find that maybe they dont reach the level of ability Saban is after these days...however, these player's ability will be of the upper tier of the other in state schools....Does this make sense to you guys?
I think fannumber has a point. If you look at teams like Miami, USC, Florida State, and Florida, as talent rich as their states are, they still go after out of state prospects. LSU has started to get some more out of state prospects than they used to (see JaMarcus Russell, Amp Hill, Dwayne Bowe, Barrington Edwards last season). Yet Robert Lane (from north Louisiana) left the state to play for Ole Miss. There are some top prospects left in Louisiana after LSU has their class, I don't understand how (for instance) having La. Tech vs. LSU every year would make Robert Lane suddenly want to go to Tech rather than an out of state school. I just think I'm missing the link between an in state rivalry and helping the recruiting of the other school.
In my opinion, It's not always in a state's or university's best interest to have 2 big universities in the same state. More times than not, it may work, but I think, for example, Michigan and Michigan state? What do u guys think?
It seems that what gets these in-state rivalries going is a shotgun wedding promoted by the state legislature. What gets that going is politics. When another school develops a presence in the legislature, the rivalry will be forced upon the schools by the legislature. Political pressure will create a rivalry.
LSU has plenty of great games every season because we are in a great conference. One reason that Miami and Florida St enjoy their rivaly is that they are in pathetic conferences. They don't have too many good games. That is changing... They may not enjoy it as much now. Also they may see their recruiting getting hurt more and more as they elevate the other teams in the ACC. If Miami suddenly was taken over by Cuba, the FSU politicians would make it a State wide holiday. Trust me when I say this: when any team (LSU) in an intrastate rivalry crushes the other school into oblivion or even sees them sink there by their own mistakes (Tulane), you won't see many fans weep. At least on one side (LSU).
Ohio State dosen't have an instate rival either and it hasn't hurt them one bit. Their big rivalry is with Michigan and the Buckeyes are a much bigger rival to Michigan than Michigan State is. Tennessee's in state rival is Vanderbilt, a situation much like it was when LSU played Tulane every year. Minnesota and Wisconsin don't have instate rivals either. Nebraska dosen't have an instate rival nor does Missouri. I think the fact that Ole Miss and Mississippi State are instate rivals in a small state hurts the chances for at least one of them to achieve national promenance. Arkansas has only been in the SEC for 11 or 12 years but since LSU plays the Hogs in a nationally televised game on the Friday before Thanksgiving every year and the fact that the series has been so competitive in time LSU and Arkansas will be each other's biggest rivals in the same fashion as the Alabama-Auburn or the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry. All are huge games with high states riding on the outcome most years.
I would like to see a in state rival every year, BUT the only thing that would help a smaller La. school would be IF they were able to beat a bigger LSU team or play them competitively every year. Recruits that want to play on TV and in the NFL go to the high profile schools, weather they are in La. or elsewhere. I always pull for the other La. teams except when they play LSU. To put it simply, LSU is my best chance to support a possible national championship in a major sport, most players want that chance too.
number of schools Well you can't really argue that a state of this size can't support 16 schools, others states of the same size do. For instance my home state North Carolina, i am not sure of the exact number but I can think of 15 4 years colleges off hand, and many are of size. UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake forest, east carolina, west carolina, app. state, UNCC, UNCW(we played in baseball last year) All these schools have 15,000 or more students, duke may not be very competitive but NC state, wake forest, even app. state is competitive. The other Louisiana schools have to make the step, it doesnt have anything to do with LSU, the other schools administrations have to make the financial long term commitement to make all that work, along with having the academics to attract players. Until they are willing to commit millions year in and year out without question, it won't happen
