LSU v Alabama a stupid rivalry?

I believe this rivalry to be one of the dumbest in college athletics. It's uninspiring, both teams have classless fans, and Nick Saban is the fuel for most of the fire. Fans of both sides take it way too seriously and everyone needs to calm down.

Argue with me if you think this rivalry means something.

Rivalries have nothing to do with how the fans behave or how "inspiring" you think it is.

This is a rivalry that has been born out of two things:

1. Proximity
&
2. Division rivalry

Both LSU and Alabama are situated relatively close to each other and since Louisiana and Alabama don't have any other major college sports teams within them (save for Auburn) they turn their rivalry towards each other.

This is also enhanced by the fact that both teams play in the Western division of the SEC. This means that when the teams play each other they are playing for a spot at the top of the division. Giving the traditional LSU-Alabama higher stakes like this has only deepened the sense of determination to beat the other team thus enhancing the rivalry.

This rivalry has been going on since 1895 [1] that's over 100 years of football rivalry here. It has a long standing tradition between the two schools and the fans. It is not trivial and it rules out your claim that it is fueled by Nick Saban because it has been around for a century.

In sports there will always be rivalries and whether a rivalry is "stupid" isn't for you to decide but rather for the schools and their fans. The fans have made it so that this is a long standing, heated rivalry for many reasons and it is in no way stupid.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org...

LSU's main rival had been Ole Miss for decades. Most of LSU's attention switched to Bama when Saban joined the tide.

If you want to argue proximity, then Ole Miss and Arkansas would be the clear choices for LSU. Just about every SEC team is each other's rivals. The Vols and Bama are huge rivals. So are Auburn and Alabama. Both are closer to Alabama than LSU, so geography is out of the question.

LSU has rivalries with almost every other SEC team that comes to mind (save Vanderbilt, but in relation to the rest they're not huge on athletics). So why is so much attention given to LSU vs. Bama, even before the past season.

P.S. Bama proved last season that regional/conference titles don't mean a thing.

As I pointed out before, the LSU-Alabama rivalry has been around since 1895 so it did not just start up. It's been given a lot of attention as of late because the two teams have been good lately, just because attention hasn't been given to the rivalry doesn't mean it's not there.

The New England Patriots have a decent rivalry with the Buffalo Bills but you don't hear about it because the Bill don't play well at the moment.

It sounds like to me you're more arguing that the media coverage of the rivalry is stupid and not the rivalry itself which is a different resolution entirely.

This rivalry has been around for over 100 years, the fans love it, the media loves it and it has been kept alive for generations by people. Just because you think it's stupid or that it gets too much media coverage doesn't change the status of the rivalry which is a huge deal. Not everyone in the SEC is rivals with each other, maybe minor ones but this is similar to the Florida-Georgia rivalry. It's ancient, heated and popular. Rivalries crop up and I can't tell how you can say one is stupid or not. It is all fan and school driven.

Mr. (or Ms., I don't know your life) Conservative Politico, I do think you are correct about my intention in making this debate. I think news coverage of the rivalry is dumb.

To me it just doesn't make sense to give so much attention. It's really not very interesting (aside from last season). I also think that the fans spend way too much time insulting each other. And let's not forget about the Alabama fans' sexual harassment incident in New Orleans. Things get way too heated between them and it escalates to a ridiculous level. Sometimes everyone just needs to remind themselves that football is just a game.

(I understand that it's "a lifestyle" for some, but come on. You don't have to hate an otherwise perfectly fine person just because they wear different colors than you on game day.)