Why was the late 90s such a good time for MSU athletics?

They won the SEC West, went to a final four, and went to Omaha twice.

Thats a very good stretch by anyones standards and it was all in a 3 year run between 96-98

Because the SEC West wasn't that good at least in football

LSU was awful during that stretch
Bama wasn't as dominant
Ole Miss wasn't very good
Auburn was up and down
Arkansas was Arkansas

LSU basketball was coming off probation and back then probation meant you would struggle for a few years

LSU had nothing to do with it

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Ole Miss wasn't very good

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Thats putting is lightly. We essentially got the death penalty short of canceling the season. We didn’t play on TV for 2 years and I think we were banned from postseason play for 3 years.

For all the shite he gets, Tubberville was a damn miracle worker winning as many games as he did. And Peyton going to Tennessee instead of Ole Miss in the middle of all that was more than understandable

Cliche to say but it all goes back to coaching and developing talent. MSU dominated instate recruiting due to Ole Miss' probation and they hit the jackpot on tons of JUCO prospects across all 3 sports. They landed some generational type MS talents with guys like Eric Dampier and Barrin Simpson too.

It breaks my heart that they suck at everything except baseball now. Absolutely breaks my heart.

Our conference record was 6-2 though we had 2 OOC losses

It’s funny 98 team gets referenced a lot due to winning the west but the 99 team was far better going 10-2 (6-2) and the SEC West had 4 out of 6 teams finishing in top 25 so the schedule was much tougher than 98. Two losses were by a combined 17 points to top 10 Alabama and top 25 Arkansas. And we won the Peach Bowl

Everything aligned. I was in college.