Report: Ole Miss in talks to trade Egg Bowl to Southern Miss
By SDS Staff
Published:
Editor’s note: Sometimes things aren’t equally obvious to all people. This article is a satire, meant to be fun and entertaining.
HOLLY BLUFF — In light of Mississippi State and Southern Miss recently agreeing to future games to renew the old in-state rivalry, it appears that there is now more to the story.
With Ole Miss still reeling from a less-than-ideal set of recent headlines, it appears the program is looking to shed more than its previous coaching staff in a rebrand and reboot attempt. Not only is Hugh Freeze gone, but it looks like the Egg Bowl might be gone as well if a new deal between the Mississippi schools materializes.
In a deal that is a first of its kind, it’s being reported that Ole Miss is attempting to trade its slot in the Egg Bowl rivalry game with Mississippi State to another Mississippi program: Southern Miss.
Why might Ole Miss be looking to get out of the historic Egg Bowl? It’s still not completely clear, but an anonymous Ole Miss official had the following to say: “Look we know fans like it, but we’ve honestly been looking for a way to get out of this for some time. I mean, seriously, the Egg Bowl? It’s a stupid name. The trophy is even worse. As some like to say: You never want to let a crisis go to waste. Well, we’re using our recent crisis to address a few other things that have been on the table for some time.”
Since this is being labeled as a trade, the logical next question is: What is Southern Miss giving up in exchange for the slot in the Egg Bowl?
Reports are mixed, but rumors have surfaced that Ole Miss is researching its ability to transfer NCAA sanctions over to the Southern Miss.
One source familiar with the matter mentioned it’s not dissimilar to when an NBA team sends a bad contract or “bad asset” to another team in exchange for something else. In essence, Ole Miss football is trying to package the bad asset of NCAA sanctions with Egg Bowl participation and send it over to Southern Miss.
NCAA sanctions, of course, can be quite bad for recruiting purposes, so it’s possible that Ole Miss views getting out of sanctions as a net gain even when the loss of the Egg Bowl is factored in.
SDS reached out to other SEC coaches and administrators to gauge reaction to such a potential deal. Interestingly, several prominent individuals and coaches seemed not intimately familiar with the Egg Bowl. One was quoted as saying, “Look, I find it difficult enough to keep up with the teams in my league, how do you expect me to watch Pac-12 football?”
Other coaches familiar with the Egg Bowl rivalry thought it a no-brainer to trade a slot in the game if it meant getting out from even some of the potential NCAA sanctions.
It’s too early to tell if such a move could become commonplace in college football. The reduction in the significance of rivalries has been a discussion point of critics who abhor the intense focus on postseason rankings such as the BCS rankings and the more recent College Football Playoff. Could the scrapping of rivalries altogether, or the strategic trading of them to smaller programs be the next evolution in today’s college football?
We’ll continue to monitor the trend.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
