Rumors: Recreating a Snow Bowl for 2012

I was perusing the message boards this afternoon when I came across an interesting thread (on SPS). Here is how it started…

"The Athletic Dept is thinking of putting artificial snow on the bushes and around the stadium..they were wanting to put it on the field but turf management said no sale"

Ah, no thank you. That would be pretty stupid. Really stupid. The special white uniforms for the game.…ok, I like that. Snow-capped bushes? Please don’t. But, wait, there’s more…

"Actually the big rumor is that they are considering painting the whole field white with maroon lines and numbers. Heard that from a guy on the turf crew and coming from a football player, there are white helmets for the game."

These are, of course, rumors. But I don’t doubt they have been tossed around as legitimate options for this game. Some may like this over-the-top stuff, but I don’t care for it at all. Why do this?

The #HailState in the endzone was inventive, and was a subtle change that drew positive attention. But putting snow on the bushes or painting the field special colors is silly and gimmicky.

If this is done, and it’s done to draw attention to Mississippi State – I don’t like it one bit. At some point you have to sell yourself on the field. The screaming kid may get some attention for a little bit, but the good kid will get the majority of attention over time. Painting the field or making huge gestures such as these would be akin to us (M&WN) constantly trying to break stories and publishing every bit of info we have (true or not) just to get some page views (I realize the irony with this being a “rumors” post, but generally…you get the point). But we’d rather you come to the site because of the content, not the shock-waves we might be able to create.

If these steps are being taken to honor the 2000 Independence Bowl, I’m still not sure I like it. That game was played in the snow, yes, and it was a great game in and of itself. But what significance did it really have? Every year after for the next six years contained no more than 3 wins apiece, so it wasn’t a springboard to greater things. It was a game featuring two 7-4 teams. A really really good game, but just a regular bowl game….that had a lot of snow.

I’m sure the athletic department will make the correct decision for Mississippi State. Going to extremes with the fake snow and white paint, I’m not so sure (although Scott Stricklin did confirm he looked into a snow machine for the intro – won’t work though).

If you’d like to watch the entire 2000 Snow Bowl once again, here you go.