SEC Traditions: The Best and Worst - Mississippi State

We've picked at the East a good bit with this series of misguided prejudices, so now we turn our attention to our closer neighbors in the West. Mississippi State, you're up.

Best Tradition: Mississippi State University cheese. I'm not even going to put any sort of Ole Miss spin on this one. Their cheese is damn good and a small part of me deep down inside is a bit envious that my beloved alma mater is not renowned for its culinary arts. My earliest experiences with Mississippi State cheese came around Christmas one winter when a dear family friend of ours (non-Southerners, please see "hunting buddy") and an alum of State gifted us with a "cannon ball," or a big round lump of Edam cheese made in Starkville. We loved it and gobbled it up like we were from the fattest place in the Western world, giving the cheese a shelf life of 2 or 3 days, tops. Even Oxford's very own Big Bad Breakfast, a favorite among the Cup writers, pridefully uses Mississippi State band cheese in all of their cheese-related dishes. They even make a point of mentioning it in their menu, and rightfully so. You haven't had a cheese omlet until Starkville's best is stuffed inside it.

Worst Tradition: You all saw this one coming from a mile away: cowbells. I mean, sure, when the only school in the conference with fewer fans attending their games is Vanderbilt you've got to make up for that noise deficit. Clangity clang clang! And what better way to do that than to celebrate your school's agricultural heritage and redneck image by utilizing antiuquated farm equipment? Clangity clackity clang clang kaclack kerclang! I'll give it to ya, State; they're loud and obnoxious which gives you, the clanger, ample reason to enjoy ringing that shit in my, the clangee's, face. Clikkity kerclack clang clang clang whoooooooooo! Hell, the story of the use of cowbells at State is just as absurd as the tradition itself in that a cow trotting onto the field of play is involved. Rattle rattle, here comes the cattle. Oh, and good work on borrowing Texas A&M's uniforms and Georgia's mascot. CLANG! CLANG! MOTHERFUCKING CLANG!