Duckhook said:
I don't understand how we have nothing to gain by beating them on a regular basis. Recruits wouldn't notice this? (Like it or not, we're still recruiting against them.) National sports media wouldn't notice this? (Like it or not, the cycle will turn and they will be relevant in college football again at some point. We wouldn't want to beat them on national TV at that point?)
Here's the deal - we have never beat them on a regular basis, historically speaking. They own the series with a 2:1 margin. We had to win for 10 years in a row to even get to that margin, and that streak ended 20 years ago. Since then we are at a .500 or so mark against them, so the idea that we beat them "on a regular basis" is patently false.
The other point is this - what do we get when we win? Bragging rights - and that's about it. Because, theoretically, we are in a tougher conference and have tougher players and play a tougher schedule - so we are supposed to win. We do brag about that, correct? We do brag about how craptastic the Big Whatever is, correct?. So winning is not all that gainful in the grand scheme of things. Losing, however, is much different. When you lose a game you are supposed to win, the loss is magnified. It gives tu much more than simple bragging rights - they get to crow about beating the state SEC team, and they will crow about it mercilessly. They will use it in recruiting, and we will surely suffer more in the media with a loss to them than they ever would with a loss to us.
It is akin to a bet with them - where we are betting $1000 to win their $100 and they are betting $100 to win our $1000. It's just not a smart move on our part to make. The history of the rivalry is now, and should be, just that - history.
We have great budding rivalries with Arkansas and LSU on the conference schedule. We are about 10 wins apart in each of those series, both of which exceed 60 games. We would serve ourselves better stoking the fires of those rivalries versus trying to bring back the burnt out rivalry with tu. We are doing good with Arkansas, and we need to fuggin beat LSU. Beating them a couple of times will have them seething with hate against us - and it will be a better and more evenly matched hate than anything tu related ever would.