Who is LSU's #1 hated rival?

quote:

---

It's a bit of sore point that comes with being an LSU fan--we really don't have a true hated rival anymore.

A lot of it has to do with just being the farthest West of all the SEC schools (until Arkie joined in 1992). We were invited to be in the original SWC in 1914, but refused, deciding to stay independent until joining the SoCo in 1922, and later the SEC in 1932-33.

So we used to have a lot of games against teams like Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Rice, but over time, conference alignments and the changing face of CFB made those rivalries obsolete (although some TAMU fans still seem to think of LSU as quasi-rivals).

Our 2 traditional rivals were always Tulane and Ole Miss, but Tulane left the SEC after the 1965 season, which was really stupid, considering that they actually kept putting a lot of resources into their program throughout the 70's and into the early 80's, but eventually they just got more and more pathetic, and we broke off our annual game with them, although we still play them from time to time.

The Ole Miss rivalry was really born of the era from 1958 to 1963, when LSU & OM arguably were the 2 best programs in the country over that time. (Texas and Alabama might dispute that.)

But Ole Miss has been tagged as the backwards athletics program of the SEC stuck in the past glories of the pre-integration era, and LSU fans really don't want to be involved with all that. We've moved on to more titles, while Ole Miss has continued to suck, so the rivalry (which as far as I know was never really a big deal until the late 50's anyway) sort of died out.

Based on the extreme awesomeness of LSU-Auburn games from about 1988 to 2007, one would think that the LSU-Auburn rivalry would have naturally grown into a fierce one, but in reality ... not so much. Sadly, it's just a matter of LSU not having any true hated rival, while all the other great programs in the SEC already have more than they know what to do with, and so can't legitimately add LSU to the list.

---

quote:

---

We played our first intercollegiate game against them (Tulane) in baseball, and our first football game against them in 1893.

The LSU-Tulane rivalry from the 20's through the 40's was huge ... HUGE. It just belongs to a bygone era, back when people in New Orleans were still pissed off that Huey Long was actually governor.

The pure level of intense hatred kept the rivalry going well into the late 70's, and maybe even the early 80's, but Tulane's self-inflicted demise as a serious athletic program ended the bitterness and replaced it with apathy.

---

quote:

---

LSU Hate-O-Meter for SEC Rivals (Current Level)
1. Auburn (every CFB fan alive should rightfully detest Auburn at the moment)
2. Ole Miss (for the timeless douchieness of Oxford)
3. Florida (the pain from past beatdowns over the last 20 years has still not gone away)
4. Alabama (thank God the "Saban Wars" within the LSU fanbase seem to finally be dying down)
5. Georgia (still haven't forgotten the Richt idiocy from 2007)
6. Tennessee (a brief rise above the rest of the pack for Dooley's perceived whining)
7. Arkansas (they are hated more by many LSU fans who frequent the SEC Rant)
8-tie. Kentucky, South Carolina, Miss. State (hard to hate)
11. Vanderbilt -- NOBODY hates Vanderbilt

---