LSU Fans Still Very Much Obsessed With USC

I'm not sure why you're calling LSU childish when the Southern Cal retort is, "Oh yeah? Well you're just jealous!"

Oh and kudos to you. Way to take what could have been an interesting story for all college football fans and find a way to alienate everyone that doesn't subscribe to WeAreSC.com. Most writers would want their readership to grow, but you took a different approach. Nicely done.

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...Tho I must admit that those pictures were idiotic and lacked any originality whatsoever.

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I'm not one to defend U$C, but how do you not see this obsession as childish. Not to mention a little bitter. I'm pretty sure U$C fans aren't spending all this time concerned with LSU.

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You guys are the ones who are childish. The BCS title is also the National Championship in college Football, and LSU was the sole winner of that game. Which in turn makes them the sole National Champions. Just because a bunch of sports writers decide they don't like the system that they setup doesn't make the results any different. And as for as last year LSU desevered to be ranked higher than USC at the end of the year. Just wait until California slides into the ocean, and see how USC responds.

Barry Sanchez
Powder Springs, Ga.

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Add to the rich history of USC's athletic program, its academic prowess and standards are now in the category of Ivy League schools (4.0 and 1400). The Deep South, with the possible exception of Duke, will never be able to attract the brightest and most talented both on the field and in the classroom.

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As a fan of neither team, I don't know why LSU fans act the way that they do. For years, there have been split national championships. Instead of being proud of their accomplishments, LSU fans are only degrading what their team did on the field. I don't think either team will ever have complete satisfaction because of a broken system, nothing was able to be settled on the field, but the actions of these fans really tarnish what the team did.

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Why do LSU fans still care? For goodness sake, this was almost a half-decade ago. I'd hate to see your marriages if you guys can never forget a supposed slight.

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USC... Ivy league standards? Ha, that's funny and if it's true, it's definitely not because of the football players.

People need to lay off the stereotypes about Southern schools. I guarantee you that Vanderbilt is a better academic institution than USC -- and I can name many more in the South.

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.....I've got a few LSU fans at work who are STILL hassling me over the 1999 "cigar game*" with Auburn. They never forget any slight, and you won't, either! LSU fans are generally civil if LSU wins, but visiting their stadium when their team gets beat is a very dangerous thing! They turn buses over, burn cars, etc.

.....* = (A lightly-regarded Auburn team cruised into Death Valley in the last months of the DiNardo era, and put a 41-7 whipping on the Bengal Tigers. Afterwards, Coach Tuberville brought his players back out of the locker room, and they lit up cigars on the field.)

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I am a USC law grad, but I would never compare USC to an Ivy League. However, luckily, I don't have to, I can just compare USC with LSU. USC - Ranked 27th in the US News College rankings. LSU - hmmmmmm, for some odd reason, it appears they're not even ranked in the top 124...... So, LSU fans, stop talking trash, you're not even close to us academically and on the football field, you only beat us in the rankings in our rebuilding year.

Link for US News Rankings: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

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USC is a fine academic institution, and certainly better than LSU, although I wouldn't say Ivy League. But that has nothing to do with their football team, which is just as full of players who shouldn't be in college as anywhere in the SEC. Whether they be from USC, Ohio State, Michigan, or wherever, people who crow about how their team has true scholar-atheletes compared to the SEC are really full of it. Just go check USC's football graduation rate. Or what sorts of classes the typical player takes (hint: not calculus or ancient greek).

To sum up: yes, most Big Ten and Pac-10 schools have better academic reputations than most SEC schools, with the possible exception of Vanderbilt and maybe Florida. But no, they don't hold their football team to those standards. So quit kidding yourselves.

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I know LSU fans get some bad press,and probably deserve it, but I can't help liking them anyway. They have a love and passion for their school and team that I admire. I cheer for them if they aren't playing Auburn. (Beat Bama)

WAR EAGLE!

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"USC - Ranked 27th in the US News College rankings. LSU - hmmmmmm, for some odd reason, it appears they're not even ranked in the top 124...... So, LSU fans, stop talking trash, you're not even close to us academically"

"To sum up: yes, most Big Ten and Pac-10 schools have better academic reputations than most SEC schools"

While I won't suggest that LSU is among the elite, the problem with the rankings is that they factor in reputation along other stuff, and better reputations do not always translate into better schools.

In terms of incoming freshman stats, LSU is essentially even with OSU, a top 20 public university. But LSU is held back mainly because of reputation, and even more with endowment (which is incredibly small considering that we weren't able to start one till 1988...a far cry from other universities who in some cases have been gathering it for over a century).

As for the article itself, there are two things wrong with it:

1)One line of evidence provided is the implication that we fell from the top of CFB. While we obviously weren't at the top, were tended to only be a step or two behind fielding one of the most talented teams in the league. And I think most schools would love to "fall" into the most successful period in their school history, achieving a level that plants them into a league with the best programs of the past decade. The main reason SOME LSU fans resent USC is 1)their attitude. Check out wearesc sometime. A number of members of that forum consider every other program to be mediocre, and multiple times a week (sometimes a day) there are rampant LSU/SEC hatefests that occur unprovoked by LSU/SEC posters or actions. Also, a number of USC posters appear on a major LSU fan site (And probably others...this one I am talking about is the same exact one that you pull your basis of argument from) at times attacking LSU, and randomly interjecting the split into football discussions, even ones that have NOTHING to do with 2003 or USC.

So you can spare me the victim angle.

2) You portray LSU fans as all hating USC. While a sizable percentage does, for numerous reasons that I won't get into here, there is an even larger percentage that simply has moved on. Had you actually read the threads you referenced to, you would have seen comments like these by LSU fans to the original poster:

"wow I wonder if I was that dumb when I was younger."

"That is pretty tasteless."

"classy"

And so on....

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The issue is not, nor has it ever been, which school is better academically. The issue is not jealousy, either. The issue is simply that a large group of passionate fans know they got the shaft, big time. After decades of yearning, their football dreams--our football dreams-- were finally realized when LSU won the 2003 BCS National Championship. The Tigers did this according to the rules set forth by the NCAA and the BCS and agreed upon even by the brilliant minds at USC. To attempt to change the outcome after the results were in was an unjust, dishonest and simply erroneous attempt at revision. Even so, with enough misinformation, perception can sometimes be twisted into some warped version of reality, as it seems to have been in this case. That said, the LSU fans who took and posed for the photographs do seem rather foolish.

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For those of you who say 2003 BCS winner was the sole NC and it was under the rules of the NCAA, you could be no more wrong. The only rule and agreement (and this was by the coaches, conferences) was the BCS system in which the top 2 BCS team would sqaure off with the winner being voted #1 by the coaches. If it were the one and only NC under the rules, then why in the heck would the BCS need to garner the coaches agreement for a vote. Carroll and USC recognize LSU and BCS 1 in 03- so get over it.

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If you would have read the site where those pictures were posted you would know that the guy was made fun of for taking them. LSU fans told him he was classless and to get over it. The only funny part was making fun of OJ (because he deserves it).
Also regarding the academic issue. California has a population of over 36 million while Louisiana has only over 4 million people. Also the public school system is below par here as well. Of course USC can be more selective with that many people. By the way, those rankings are total crap and rated on your reputation and how much endowment money the school has. How can you precisely rank schools through certain baseless criteria?

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Academics are mostly reputation. The are SEC scholls that specialize in different programs and on par with or better than Big 10 and Pac 10 schools. I'm from Alabama, and I know that UA has a top business program and Auburn is a very good Engineering and Marine Science school. Maybe top to bottom, they can't compete with USC because they're smaller, but you can still get a good education.

When I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University a few years ago, our College of Mass Communications (Music Recording, Digital Animation, Radio & TV)was ranked higher than USC's.

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I still partially stand by my comments about the relative academic prestige of the Big-10, Pac-10, and SEC. (I should say though, that I'm an academic, and in academia prestige goes a long way when it comes to snagging a good job, so my perception is a little blurred). However, those who point out the bit about endowment are completely correct--it's weighted far too heavily in the rankings, and the rankings have been rightly criticized for that reason. And yeah, you can get a fantastic education at a place like LSU. No doubt about that.

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QUOTE*Coach Nick Saban saw the writing on the wall and bolted town for the NFL's Miami Dolphins and the Tigers have been unable to sniff championship football since. *QUOTE


huh?

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Just FYI:
1) USC has as many crystal footballs as LSU does. That would be "1" for the fans who only believe what they see in the media.

2) LSU's incoming freshman class last year had an average ACT/SAT of a 25.3/1170 and an ACADEMIC GPA (no electives in the score) of a 3.5. Not to shabby for public school in the south, eh? Much better than many schools in the Pac 10 and Big 10, but again, you will never read that in the media, or in any US News reports. Way to put a twist on the truth, which is something the liberal media is good at.

3) LSU's football program is not on a downward spiral, as illuded to in the article. LSU has been competing solidly in the SEC since 2003. You know, one of the best ALL-AROUND conferences in the country with two or three GREAT teams, along with four or five decent teams (any of which would give USC or UCLA a run for their money).

4) To anyone who pays attention to world affairs, it should be of no surprise that a team from Los Angeles would get more pub than a team from lowly Louisiana. Who cares? See point #1 in regards to this. The media can do lots of things, but it can't take away the crystal from LSU in 2003.

Unfortunately for CFB, the media is slowly being put back in charge of who decides the champ in college football. In 1997, with the creation of the BCS, many fans were happy because finally, the bias was removed. Things like "strength of schedule" and "quality wins" were going to determine who came out on top in college football, not a biased media.

Now, would a USC fan care to remind the rest of the nation why these two variables were removed from the equation after 2003? LOL

CFB almost witnessed another solid team (Florida) get screwed out of a chance at glory this year because of the removal of those variables. If it weren't for a certain california team losing to another weak cali team (the one that got blown out by a sub-par ACC team in some unknown bowl), UF would have sat at home......remember that CFB fans....

5) LSU fans are obsessed, yet you wrote an article about it. LOL. Good one.

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