Mississippi State vs. Alabama Game Time Announced
Nov 16, 2013; Starkville, MS, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide running back T.J. Yeldon (4) is tackled by Mississippi State Bulldogs linebacker Beniquez Brown (42) during the game at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
#1 Mississippi State will play #3 Alabama in Tuscaloosa on November 15th at 2:30 CST. The game will be televised by CBS. College Gameday will also be in town for the game – the second time this year for both teams.
There was a wrench thrown into the plans that would ordinarily assume CBS would take this game in a heartbeat. No team is allowed to play on the network more than five times in one season, and Alabama has played four times already. That means since CBS selected this game they will have to forfeit broadcasting the Iron Bowl in Week 14 – thus making it inevitable the Egg Bowl will be on CBS. The final call was made, and CBS chose to air this game, which makes sense considering the magnitude of it.
This will be the second top 5 match-up for Mississippi State this year. The first was when they were ranked #3 and hosted #2 Auburn. The Bulldogs won that game 38-23. Both the AP and Coaches Polls rank MSU as #1, but the Coaches have Alabama at #3 and the AP has the Tide at #4.
Alabama beat LSU in Week 11 20-13 in overtime while MSU easily defeated UT-Martin 45-16.
The Crimson Tide have dominated this series in Tuscaloosa since Nick Saban took over as head coach.
- 2008: 32-7
- 2010: 30-10
- 2012: 38-7
The last time State won at Bryant-Denny Stadium was 2006. It was a very unexpected outcome as the Bulldogs were just 2-7 coming into the game against the Tide who were 6-3; but Mike Shula got “Croomed” by a final score of 24-16. The Dawgs had a terrific goal-line stand just before halftime that propelled them to victory. Bama fans might even thank Mississippi State for putting that final nail in Shula’s coffin, leading to the arrival of Nick Saban (after Rich Rodriguez accepted the job, then reneged). Be sure to check out this audio clip of Jack Cristil calling the final seconds of that 2006 win via SixPackSpeak.com.
The 2014 game will surely be the biggest in this long-time rivalry. In 1981, just one year after MSU defeated a #1 and two-time defending national champion Alabama team, #7 MSU came came to Tuscaloosa to face #8 Alabama. The Tide won that game 13-10. In 1999, #8 MSU visited #11 Alabama and lost 19-7 (we’ll have more on both of these games on Tuesday).
These two teams have played every year since 1939. The Crimson Tide lead the series 77-18-3.