Mississippi’s Largest House Party will have an addition this year with football flavor added to the 132th edition of the Neshoba County Fair. Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach, Southern Mississippi head coach Will Hall and Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin will be in attendance on Thursday at 2 p.m. for an hour-long roundtable question and answer segment with host Sid Salter as the moderator. Since Mississippi politics has also been called a state sport. Governor Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, State Auditor Shad White, House Speaker Phillip Gunn and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney will kick off the day with political speeches from 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Alabama, for the seventh straight year, was picked by the media in the preseason poll last week in Hoover at SEC Media Days to win the SEC Championship over Georgia. Alabama was picked to win the Western Division while Georgia grabbed the nod in the Eastern Division. In the Western Division, Alabama was followed by Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss, Auburn, Arkansas and Mississippi State, in that order. In the Eastern Division, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina and Vanderbilt followed Georgia in succession. Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral was named the first team preseason All-SEC quarterback while Jerrion Ealy was named the first-team return specialist.
The biggest sports story of the week came during SEC Media Days when it was announced that Big 12 powers Oklahoma and Texas have been talking with the SEC about joining the conference. The pair would need 11 yes votes from the present 14 SEC schools to be admitted.
The Conference-USA media forecasted a rematch of the 2020 championship game by selecting Marshall and last year’s champion UAB to win their divisions again. UAB was chosen in the West followed by UT-San Antonio, Louisiana Tech, Southern Mississippi, North Texas and UT-El Paso. Marshall was selected in the Eastern Division, followed by Florida Atlantic, Western Kentucky, Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, Florida International and Old Dominion.
The SWAC conference also held their Media Days as Alabama A&M and Alcorn were selected on top of their divisions in the preseason predictions. In the Eastern Division Alabama A&M was followed by Florida A&M, Jackson State, Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman and Mississippi Valley. Southern University, Grambling, Prairie View, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Texas Southern followed top choice Alcorn in the Western Division. Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders made national headlines at the event as he ended an interview when a reporter called him by his first name. Sanders asked the reporter if he called Nick Saban by his first name. Saban’s response was, “It’s not that important to me because I have been called just about everything.”
Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame
The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame will have the 2020 and 2021 Induction Weekend this Saturday night at the Jackson Convention Center. Last year’s event was not held because of COVID. Debbie Brock, Lindsey Hunter, Erick Dampier, Terrence Metcalf, Dave Randall and Randy Watkins are the 2021 inductees while the Class of 2020 inductees includes Jerry Boatner, Pete Brown, Antonio McDyess, Janet Marie Smith, Larry Templeton and Patrick Willis.
Baseball Notes
The last place Biloxi Shuckers (25-45) took down the first place Mississippi Braves (40-32) by sweeping all six games this past week.
Former Mississippi State second baseman Adam Frazier is on the move. The 2021 National League All-Star was traded from Pittsburgh to San Diego over the weekend. Frazier is enjoying his best season of his MLB career, batting .324 with four home runs and rarely striking out.
Two of the best pitchers in the majors squared off Sunday night with former Ole Miss hurler and Chicago White Sox hurler Lance Lynn (10-3) winning a tight pitching duel over former MSU and Milwaukee Brewer pitcher Brandon Woodruff (7-5). Lynn also drove in two runs with a single on the night. He made headlines last week signing a $38 million dollar extension with Chicago.
Dale is a Waynesboro resident who has been writing sports since 1973.
