At one time (at my age I'm not so sure of when) I saw USM as equal to FSU and Ga. Tech as quality MAJOR teams in the South who just didn't happen to be in the $EC. The only difference in USM when compared to Ole Miss and Miss St. was conference affiliation. I didn't see Hattiesburg as less than Starkville or Oxford in the Mississippi landscape. I can remember being very upset that TN Tech was able to secure a H & H BkB series with USM while MT never played them. I would have seen them as one of our infrequent quality OOC home opponents.
Gotta feel for their long-time fans (So many of them that I met at the N. O. Bowl game were great folks) who have witnessed their decent (or failure to rise) in the college FB landscape primarily because of the location. That said, other than population what exactly does MT's location do to help the athletic program, being as how it is perceived in the local media and by the area's population.
