Questions about Tennessee fans' besiegement of Starkville

The posters here haven’t been saying anything obviously but on Facebook the boomers are commenting “uh that’s the visitors side so they didn’t take over! They were where they are supposed to be! The other side of the stadium was 99% State fans!”

Wait till Texas comes to Lexington. There won't be any blue within 10 miles of the stadium unless stoops and hamden are already gone.

-Poor season ticket sales following back to back awful seasons

-TN does travel incredibly well and have an exciting team/coach at this moment so helps drive even more fans. They didn’t have this type of crowd the last two times they came to Starkville

-our fans really didn’t buy until AZ State win and by then a good bit had already been sold

It was embarrassing and I don’t like that it happened but there are some valid reasons. UGA did something similar a few years back. Covid, leach’s death, Arnett drove a lot of fans away from buying season tickets but if we stay playing like we are then I would bet we can remedy that in the offseason.

Certainly credit to Tennessee. But State was coming off a 2-10 season. I am sure that a lot those tickets were bought before the season.
It was still 75% State fans and the students were really loud.
As State continues to win, fans will purchase season tickets in larger numbers and this situation will not be repeated.
I remember back in 1982, we played Tulane in the Superdome and State had about 50% of the crowd that was over 50,000. So it is not the first this has happened and will not be the last.
I would characterize as Tennessee bringing a good crowd but in no way did they take over the stadium.

Short drive and cheap tickets. Too many State fans just sold too cheap to resist.

Felt like a UT at Vandy game. I was surprised at the amount of orange.

State didn't have any true excitement as a fan base until after ASU. I'm sure most UT fans bought in the summer.

That’s the fullest I’ve ever seen it from opposing fans, that said, there are a few factors at play, many of which have been discussed.

Visitors section runs as seen:



The above (in pink) is what you typically see on big SEC weekends for teams that are in reasonable driving distance.

Factor two, and probably the biggest factor, after two wins last season, optimism was low, season ticket sales were in the tank, and Tennessee who hasn’t been to Starkville in a very long time, likely circled this game as an opportunity for cheap tickets to an sec game that was a likely W in their minds.

Another factor is prime seating on that end is given to faculty. It’s been a pretty big issue amongst state fans with faculty receiving discounted tickets and often selling them to opposing fans (I believe that extends to two lower bowl sections pretty near the 50…maybe the 35-45 yard line). It’s a prime area where tickets should demand a premium, but it’s what we have done for forever. Maybe this will force a change, but it’s certainly not all faculty in those pics.

It is certainly a bad look, but with those factors, it’s at least somewhat understandable that this was the result. We win 6 games last year (with that brutal schedule) it’s likely 85%-90% maroon like most big games when we are decent. Completely shite the bed with cheap, available tickets to opposing fans and sell-out faculty off the worst season in 20+ years, and it makes a bit of sense. Still pretty embarrassing tho. UGA and Texas might do the same for the same reason I just outlined.

Bad look, but that’s what you get when you win 2 games the previous season and lose to Toledo. The positive is that we opened the wallet and decided to play the NIL game.

It’s ridiculous and it’s completely antiquated. It’s never been this bad, but they might have just fricked up now that everyone is talking about it.