Mississippi State Bulldogs football
The Mississippi State University Bulldogs football program has produced 14 All-Americans and 54 All-SEC members. In 1998, MSU won the SEC Western Division Championship and competed in the 1998 SEC Championship Game, leading Tennessee in the fourth quarter before falling 24-14 before 74,000 fans in the Georgia Dome. They continued on to play in the AT&T Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, against a heavily favored Texas Longhorns team. The Bulldogs lost the game 38-11, but it was the school's first New Year's bowl appearance since the 1940 Orange Bowl. In 1999 MSU finished 10-2 with a #12 final ranking. That is the best record and highest final ranking of any Division I-Bowl Subdivision (FBS) team in Mississippi in the past 30 years and the highest UPI/USA Today/Coaches Poll ranking in Mississippi Division I in over 40 years.
The Bulldogs play in Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. The facility is the second-oldest football stadium in NCAA FBS football. The current capacity is 55,082. Typical to most SEC stadiums, Davis Wade Stadium has extensive landscaping done around the playing field. The largest attendance in a game at the stadium is 56,188 which occurred on November 10, 2007 during the MSU vs. Alabama contest.
In 2005, Mississippi State opened the 46,000 square foot Holliman Center. The center includes a weight room, equipment room, team meeting rooms, a lounge, and a practice locker room. The facility is considered one of the best in the nation and is a marketable commodity for incoming recruits.
Mississippi State made history on December 1, 2003, when it hired Sylvester Croom as its head football coach. Croom was the first African-American named to such a position in the history of the SEC.
I want to make sure everybody understands, I am the first African-American coach in the SEC, but there isn't but one color that matters here - and that color is Maroon.
The Bulldogs finished the 2006 college football season with a dismal 3-9 record (1-7 conference). MSU's only wins came over UAB (16-10, overtime) of Conference USA in Birmingham and DI-Championship Subdivision ("FCS", formerly know as DI-AA) opponent Jacksonville State (35-3). The Bulldogs' lone conference victory came over Alabama in Tuscaloosa, a game in which MSU was a 14-point underdog, by a 24-16 margin, snapping a streak of 23 consecutive conference road losses for MSU.
2007 Season
Controversy
- In 1975, Mississippi State's football program lost 5 scholarships and was placed on 2 years probation with 2 years ban from television and postseason play after an NCAA investigation found the program guilty of extra benefits, improper recruiting entertainment, inducements and transportation, excessive number of official visits, lack of institutional control and questionable practice.[1]
- In 1996, Mississippi State's football program lost 13 scholarships and was placed on 1 year probation after an NCAA investigation found that a recruiting assistant offered cash and other inducements to prospective student-athletes and that an athletics representative provided improper bonuses, cash, loans and meals to student-athletes, some of whom he employed.[2]
- In October 2004, Mississippi State's football program was placed on probation by the NCAA for four years, stripped of eight scholarships over the next two seasons and banned from postseason play because of recruiting violations. The NCAA infractions committee had found two former assistants and several boosters broke recruiting rules between 1998 and 2002. Among the violations, the committee found members of the Mississippi State football program had improperly reimbursed prospective student-athletes for recruiting trips, giving recruits and their families money for hotel rooms and rental cars. An assistant coach arranged to pay for the summer school classes a recruit needed to become eligible and a booster allowed two recruits to stay in a hotel in Starkville for free. The penalties were severe because it was the second time in recent years the Mississippi State football program had been sanctioned by the NCAA. Mississippi State is considered a repeat offender by the NCAA.[3]
See also