It’s an interesting time for Mississippi’s SEC athletic programs.
Despite the rough economic times that our nation and state face, both Ole Miss and Mississippi State have started capital fundraising campaigns in 2011 with lofty goals.  MSU is hoping to raise enough money to build a new football facility and get the ball rolling on expanding Davis Wade Stadium, while up the road in Oxford, Ole Miss wants to raise $150 million for a new basketball arena and stadium expansion.
Combined, the schools’ projects are expected to reach $300 million, a hefty price tag for any SEC school, let alone two of the smallest athletic budgets in the conference.
This is why the 2011 football season is about more than pride or wins and losses. Both schools have big plans for the future, and a successful season would go a long way in raising the hundreds of millions in private funds needed for their projects. 
Scott Stricklin announced earlier in the month $100 million worth of projects will be initiated in the next 12 to 15 months alone. Even though the money is coming from private funds, it’s still a staggering amount for anybody to spend in one of the country’s poorest states.
MSU has certainly been gaining momentum in areas outside of the football program since Dan Mullen came to campus in 2009.  Enrollment (though it was already growing before Mullen’s arrival) has surpassed 20,000 students, and private giving through the Bulldog Club is at an all-time high.
The excitement from the football field has carried over into the community, with the city of Starkville making a much-needed effort to embrace the university’s role in town and re-branding itself as “Mississippi’s College Town.”
Is the success of a football team solely responsible for the growth of the university and the community? Of course not, but it is hard not to notice the positive momentum in Starkville after a nine-win season in 2010.
No pressure to keep that momentum going and the donations coming in, right? Mullen’s hair has not started to gray yet, but given everything that is riding on the 2011 season, I would not be surprised to see hints of gray by the year’s end.
A large part of Mullen’s hype machine has been focused on the Ole Miss rivalry, or “the School up north,” as Dan would say.
Mullen has been taking verbal shots at Ole Miss since he arrived on campus, and that talk has become exponentially louder after winning back-to-back Egg Bowls. Even the lull of the off-season has produced more trash talk than expected.
MSU rolled out billboards along Mississippi’s borders that read “Welcome to Our State” and has made sure everybody knows the Golden Egg is in Starkville by posting videos of a day in the life of the Egg.
Despite the ugly season, Ole Miss was still able to sign top recruits in the state that had previously committed to MSU, which Houston Nutt made sure to point out at SEC Media Days in July.
Even the PR staffers got in the action, with Ole Miss’ football sports information director slapping the headline “State’s Top Recruiting Class Arrives on Campus” on a press release in August.
Joe Gailbraith, SID for MSU football, responded the same day with a release headlined “Our State’s Nationally-Ranked Football Team Returns to Work with Split Squad Practices.”
Shots fired, at least from the PR teams.
The common link in the rivalry is trying to be the best in the state, which, in my opinion, can only be good for the state.
Mississippi has seen plenty of ups and downs (with more downs, historically), so it is good to see people taking pride in the state and hopefully debunking the perception of Mississippi that exists outside its borders.
 
Both schools are armed with fancy renderings of stadium expansion, and in Ole Miss’s case, a new basketball arena (I’ll save my jokes about the Tad Pad for later). One school has higher on-field expectations than they have had since the current players were in elementary school.
The other is hoping to rejuvenate a fan base that witnessed losses to Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt a year ago.
I can’t pretend I know what will happen on or off the field in 2011, but I do know this: it’ll sure as hell be interesting to see.