**SEPARATED BY MORE** than 2,000 miles and very different college football cultures, Washington State and the University of Mississippi are an unlikely pairing before the football game this Saturday in Oxford. Yet when you line up their histories, numbers, and legends side by side, the Cougars and Rebels reveal surprising parallels, stark contrasts, and a rivalry that never was but could make for one of the most fascinating “what-if" matchups in higher education and college ahtletics.
At first glance, WSU and the Ole Miss couldn't be more different. One sits high on the windswept Palouse, surrounded by wheat fields and rolling hills; the other thrives in the Deep South, framed by magnolias and a grove that doubles as one of college football's most famous tailgate venues.
Yet when you line up their histories and legacies — founded just a generation apart, nearly identical in enrollment, and each with a proud athletic tradition — the Cougars and the Rebels make for a surprisingly natural side-by-side comparison.