So, the MSU baseball team that was picked LAST in the SEC pre-season polls and somehow managed to lose to powerhouses like Dallas Baptist and Austin Peay is headed to the College World Series after sweeping Clemson in the Super Regional. They're even on the front page over at ESPNU.com right now! State finished up the regular season by dropping the last three SEC series, and then proceeded to go 0-2 in the SEC Tournament. Mysteriously, they then proceeded to go to Florida State and beat the nationally seeded Seminoles (who some experts said had the easiest regional draw) twice to advance to the Supers to face the winner of the Coastal Carolina/Clemson matchup. The complete turnaround was something that most State fans really didn't see coming. Then, it was announced that Starkville would finally be the host site. The Clemson fans didn't take the news well that the "vastly inferior" Bulldogs would host, while ignoring the facts that State beat a better opponent, didn't get to play in their home state, and had traveled to Clemson for regionals/supers twice in the past few seasons (newsflash, Brett; finishing ONE PLACE ahead of MSU in the RPI can hardly be considered "superior", and the fake shock over the role of money in college athletics just makes you look ignorant). Surely after a few days, they would get over it. Wrong. Right up until game day, their athletic department bitched (apparently they had no idea how the bid system worked, so blame the school that figured it out), their coach bitched (not unlike a good old Ron Polk diatribe against the NCAA, but I digresss) and their fans. You better believe they bitched (see the Scout article). Apparently IPTAY is from a Cherokee word meaning "endless whining." Then, came the predictable Starkville jabs. Sure, there were plenty of hotel rooms in several surrounding cities, but that fact wouldn't have done much for the fantastic hyperbole. This point is especially ironic, since the only time I've been to Clemson (full disclosure: for my brother's graduation) the closest hotels were almost a half hour away. Late night update: They're still bitching!!! Check out the last sentence. Apparently ya'll are pretty dense, so I'll type this slowly: THERE IS NO HOSTING CONTROVERSY! There is no great NCAA conspiracy that holds MSU in some great light. Trust me. State's been screwed on bowl bids, basketball seedings, and even baseball regionals. It sucks, but it happens to everybody. There are 13,000 reasons (and $100K+) why your self-proclaimed superior team didn't get to host. Take your "deserve" and "logic" and sit on it for the whole offseason while you self-entitled pricks watch MSU play in Omaha. Seriously, bringing it up again and again just makes you look petty. If your team was so much better on the field, as you claim why couldn't they (and their high draft picks, oh look, that's an excuse too, now!) manage to get a single win in Starkville? It can be a three game series. Just get one win. Now, for the actual games. It's doubtful that many Clemson fans could have gotten any tickets, anyway, since the State fans packed Dudy Noble Field (@PDS) to the gills. From Veazey's Blog:
Friday's Starkville Super Regional attendance of 12,620 was more than the other three Super Regional sites combined. Louisville, North Carolina and Rice drew a combined 11,992.Keep in mind this was for a game at 11 in the morning on a Friday. But surely, the club that's presumptuous enough to emblazon "Omaha" in their logo on the back of their hats could win two more on the road, right? Especially from such an overmatched hack of an opponent? Apparently not. At least the writer from the Charleston paper had fun out in the lounge (pi
c from the Clarion Ledger, making me all nostalgic-note to my friends, sadly no, that's not me to the left of "flag guy" I was at freaking work) watching the "vastly superior" Tigers lose in a great back-and-forth game. Today's game was another great nail-biter that the Dogs won 8-5 to advance to Omaha where they'll play a to-be-determined Carolina team (either North or South) on Friday. It's State's first trip back to the CWS since 1998. And for a fanbase that knows a thing or two about adversity, it's pretty freaking sweet.
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