The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Not many people know that LSU's full name is Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

Before the UGA-Texas game, I glanced at scores of course, and noted Texas had been in some close ones against lesser quality teams, and of course got ambushed in the Swamp.  On the other hand, they have a ton of talent, enough to be very dangerous.  They beat OU in a rivalry of course and Vandy, who looks pretty solid.  But like GaTech, a team with a nice record but a lot of close wins might not be all that and "regress to the mean".

Anyway, we all know real rivalry games seem often to go against the spread.

I don't think that most people know that William T. Sherman was on the faculty president of what was then known as the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy right before the Civil War.

In late 1860, he wrote this to a friend on the faculty:

You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it … Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.