I like to consider myself an optimist. I am always up for an adventure. So when it came to buying away game tickets last spring I said, “Why not? I’ll just buy all of them (except for Syracuse, because that’s ridiculous). It’ll be great.”

Last weekend, it was time for the first road game, Mississippi State. So, on Saturday morning, a couple fraternity brothers and an “associate member” (as we like to call it now) left for Starkville, Mississippi. In just a few hours, we figured out why we were the only people we knew that were going to the game.

At the start of our day, everything went well. We were having fun with our “associate” and blasting some 80’s rock. Once we passed Jackson, though, we saw civilization leave us. The only thing we saw for miles was highway and open fields. That didn’t bother us, though since we had gone to Auburn (which is also in the middle of nowhere) the year before.

Anyway, arriving at Mississippi State was quite shocking.The only way we knew we were there was the stadium with the giant scoreboard situated in the middle of grass fields. Driving down the road, I heard someone yell “Are y’all from LSU? Welcome to Starkvegas!”

“We’re here? Where is everything?” I accidentally said out loud.

The town of Starkville is just a stadium, some school buildings, and a lot of open fields to the best of my knowledge. I’m not even sure how it can be considered a town, much less ‘Starkvegas’. The name has a nice ring to it, but I’m very glad I don’t live in a place that has to have ‘–Vegas’ tagged to the end of its name to make it sound cool.

Before I keep bashing the place, I have to say that the brothers of Pi Kappa Phi at Mississippi State were very gracious hosts. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them before the game on Saturday. They had a party at their house—thank God. We were saved from having to go to “The Junction” until about a couple hours before the game when they moved the party out there. It’s basically a wannabe parade grounds with a bunch of Mississippi rednecks yelling at you to go to hell. It’s kind of like “The Grove” at Ole Miss, but the people weren’t sporting Vineyard Vines ties and oxford shirts.

Probably one of the worst parts about “Moo State” (as I learned to call it) was something I never anticipated, COW BELLS. I should’ve seen it coming. I can handle being told to ‘go to hell’ and people screaming ‘Hail State’ in my ear, but the bells are something else entirely. It’s like they specially designed a way to annoy the hell out of everyone around them. If you ever go to Starkvegas, be prepared for a constant clanging that lasts for about four hours. This is by far the worst tradition in college football. But after a while the bells aren’t so annoying when you’re kicking the other team’s @$$.

The LSU section was rocking. We had a lot of fun. It felt like home again after spending the day in the weirdest college town ever. Everyone there made our section feel like a little piece of Tiger Stadium. We lived up to the rowdy reputation LSU fans have for the entire game; heck, half the benches broke from us jumping up and down cheering on the Tigers.

No matter how many bad things people will tell you about Starkvegas, I recommend going there. Just make sure the Tigers will win before you go. Their fans aren’t the most gracious losers so I don’t want to see what winning there looks like. The town might suck, but when LSU is there, it really can live up to the cool name. Adventures are fun and all, but I’m glad to be back in Baton Rouge after that one.