Favorite University Series: Arkansas/Mississippi edition

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Well, Cornell runs away with that very specific region. Votes can continue to trickle in if one hopes to get one of the others under at-large consideration, but it's looking like just Cornell.

We head waaay down south for everyone's favorite part of the country one last time. At least our resident SEC fans have been waiting a long time for this one specifically. Looks like we are about 5/8 done which doesn't sound like a lot, but the map is slowly getting covered.



[1] Mississippi State - Great to see the football relevant for once, but when will basketball be relevant again??
[2] Central Arkansas - those gray unis are pretty awesome. One of my favorite football programs!
[3] Arkansas - depends on the year if they're in tier 1 or 2 honestly. Very close.
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[4] Ole Miss - Some concerning Confederate things seem to be going on there, but there's some good stuff too
[5] Arkansas State - football only
[6] UALR
[7] MVSU - best SWAC school by a mile
[8] UAPB
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[9] Southern Miss
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[10] Jackson State
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[11] Alcorn State



Past polls: AL; FL; IL; NorCal; MD; KY; CO; Upper New England; American Southwest;  Backyard Brawl;
Middle America;  North Texas;  MI; LA; NYC; UT/NV; GA; Pacific Northwest; WI/MN; Eastern Mass; IN; NJ/DE; Western Upstate NY

AR/MS

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Ole Miss

[Mr. Illini]

Went with MissSt. Ole Miss is a cool place but has always been and remains today one of the most racist schools in the county.

[7,052,770]

Before you vote, remember:

• Ole Miss football players were required to attend a play about Matthew Shepherd for class and spent the whole time yelling out anti-gay slurs at the actors, greatly disrupting the play.
• Big student riot* on Ole Miss campus when Obama was reelected including shouting of racial slurs
• Ole Miss had to stop playing "Dixie" because the students wouldn't stop yelling a racist cheer ("The South Will Rise Again!") at the end of it, even when football players explained why it made them uncomfortable and begged them to stop. This happened in ... 2009 (!)

The more reasonable Ole Miss fans will argue that these incidents could happen anywhere, and yeah, maybe one of them could, but the fact remains that all of them did happen at only one school.

I could understand voting for Ole Miss if you went there or were indoctrinated since birth into lifelong fandom, but I really can't fathom how a red avatar with no connection could possibly vote Ole Miss.

If you're ever unsure which Mississippi school to root for, remember this image:


That's right, while Ole Miss was trying to physically prevent James Meredith, a black man, from enrolling at the university (until the National Guard forced him in at gunpoint), Mississippi State's basketball team had to sneak out of the state to play in the NCAA Tournament, in defiance of a state law against played integrated teams. What a bunch of heroes.


_{*--Riot's probably an exaggeration, but still, this happened.}

[7,052,770]

[1] Mississippi State - Great to see the football relevant for once, but when will basketball be relevant again??

We returned to relevance a few weeks ago when we hired Ben Howland as our coach and signed Malik Newman. Expect us to play in the NCAA Tournament in 2016.

[gespb19]

Southern Miss, obviously. And yes I know our football has been in the crapper recently.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Harry - completely agree. The only reason I can imagine them getting any votes is for The Blindside.

Also, this was absolutely insane! Still was obviously going for Prescott last year though.

[Del Tachi]

HAIL STATE!

Seconding all of the things Harry said about Ole Miss and I'd just like to add that, as an academic/research institution, they've been outpaced by Mississippi State for about 12-18 years now.