USM vs MSU vs UM

When it comes to fishing for non-conference opponents, both Mississippi State and Ole Miss love to dip their hooks into Conference USA.

There’s nothing like kicking off against Memphis or Houston or Tulane or Alabama-Birmingham for a chance to pick up an easy win.

To try to make life even easier for the Ole Miss athletic establishment, the Rebels will even go mano a mano with the Lions of Southeastern Louisiana, the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona, the Gamecocks of Jacksonville State, the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette and the Salukis of Southern Illinois.

Making life easier is more difficult for the Bulldogs, as the Black Bears of Maine proved in 2004 with a 9-7 cowbell-silencing victory in Starkville. Still, there is the hope that the Tigers of Mississippi’s own Jackson State and the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee will be softer fare than the Tigers of LSU and the Hogs of Arkansas this fall for MSU.

But amid all this non-Southeastern Conference pairing up, neither Ole Miss nor State will hook up with Southern Miss, which is also a member of C-USA.

It didn’t used to be this way.

State started playing football with Southern in ’64 and Ole Miss followed suit in ’66. But the Bulldogs haven’t played football with the Golden Eagles since 1990. As for the Rebels, this is the silver anniversary of the last USM-UM game in 1984.

Both State and Ole Miss seem quite satisfied with the status quo.

As for Southern Miss, they are hardly sulking in the shadows.

The days of scheduling quality opponents by offering to play “anyone, anywhere, anytime” are behind them. After kicking off the season with the Braves of Alcorn State from just across the state, the Golden Eagles will entertain the Cavaliers of Virginia and then go on the road to meet the Jayhawks of Kansas and the Cardinals of Louisville. Next season, the Jayhawks come to Hattiesburg and the Golden Eagles will swoop into Baton Rouge to have a go at LSU.

Indeed, for all the yelps from fans of the upstate football programs, accommodating both State and Ole Miss would be much more difficult for Southern than for either of them to fit USM into their schedules.

But hard or easy, it ought to be done.

It is time for both State and Ole Miss to toss one of the minnows off their schedule and add one whale of a game.

As USM athletic director Richard Giannini recently told the Sun Herald: “I’ve been to their stadiums — not with Southern Miss — but with other programs, and I saw a lot of unsold seats when they play several opponents. If we play them, it will be overpacked. They will be outside scalping tickets. Hopefully one day it will move in that direction.”

Hope is fine, but legislative action would be quicker and surer.

Before we help fill up stadiums in Memphis or Birmingham, let’s help fill up the ones in Hattiesburg and Oxford and Starkville.

The editorial above represents the views of the Sun Herald editorial board, which consists of President-Publisher Ricky R. Mathews, Vice President and Executive Editor Stan Tiner, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Flora S. Point, Opinion Page Editor B. Marie Harris and Associate Editor Tony Biffle.