The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Keep Alabama-Mississippi State Rivalry and Delete The 90 Mile Drive (which by the close of this AfD, had turned into a redirect). The vote of the participants, small in number though they may be, is for Keep of the underlying article. I don't find the sources very impressive, and I share the view that we don't need a separate article on every rivalry of an SEC team with Alabama. May I suggest to the editors that they consider redirecting Alabama-Mississippi State Rivalry to Mississippi State University#Athletics, and adding any significant material to the target of the redirect. To tidy up the set of entries on this subject, I've deleted The 90 Mile Drive, though I don't object to its re-creation if anyone can find reliable sources for use of that term for an athletic rivalry. EdJohnston (talk) 02:47, 8 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The 90 Mile Drive[edit]

The 90 Mile Drive (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)

This page should be deleted because there is no rivalry between Mississippi State and Alabama in football (ie lack of notability). While it is a big game, every SEC football team does not have a rivalry with every other team in their division. This game is no more important than the Alabama-Arkansas or Alabama-Ole Miss game. Furthermore, there is little to no information on the page that can't be added to another section of either the Alabama or Mississippi State football pages. CH52584 (talk) 22:35, 2 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have made several changes to the original article, moving it from "The 90 Mile Drive" to simply the Alabama-Mississippi State Rivalry, and refocused the subject of the article to a general athletic rivalry instead of a football rivalry. I will admit that the Alabama-Mississippi State basketball game is (or has been recently) a very important game in SEC basketball. Given that, and that Mississippi State views the Alabama football game as one of the biggest of the season (what SEC team doesn't?), and their proximity to each other, I think an article concerning an athletic rivalry is not unwarranted. However, my main complaint against the article was 1.) the name, which I have changed, and 2.) the focus on the football aspect, which is neither heated nor competitive. I have addressed my concerns, and would be willing to let the article stand as it currently is.CH52584 (talk) 18:33, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
First of all, I'm from Alabama and have never heard the term "The 90 Mile Drive." I googled the term and the only hit I got that referred to the Alabama-Mississippi State game was a link to this article. If you have numerous sources, please provide them. The issue here is that this game is an afterthought in the minds of most Alabama fans. Number of meetings is not a factor: rivalries are made by the fans, and this game is nothing more than another SEC game to one fanbase. CH52584 (talk) 04:33, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
[1], [2], [3]. — X96lee15 (talk) 04:42, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
While 2 of these 3 do refer to the game as "The 90 Mile Drive," I still argue that the term is not commonly recognized as the "title" of the game. SEC and College football fans know what you're talking about when you mention the Iron Bowl, Third Saturday in October, The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, etc. But you'll also note that the "Tiger Bowl" does not have its own page, it's listed as the Auburn-LSU game. Same for the "Saban Bowl" and the "Nutt Bowl." These are, at best, nick-names that have yet to enter common knowledge, and should not be referred to as such. CH52584 (talk) 18:12, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Point yes, that is a point... but one that should be handled on the name or title of the article, which technically is an "editing" issue. Here, we are discussing "should the article exist at all" rather than "what should the title of the article be" ... but GREAT POINT just the same!--Paul McDonald (talk) 19:17, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I agree. We could create several dozen articles for every possible matchup in the SEC, but I think it would be a waste of time. Alabama is a traditional power in D-1A college football and has a winning record against every other SEC team. It's expected that most teams will consider a matchup against Alabama as a big game. But I don't think that qualifies as a rivalry, regardless of how close the school is to Alabama, or how many times they've played before. CH52584 (talk) 21:53, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Comment one editor's waste of time is another editor's enthusiastic entry. Further, the possibilities of other articles existing because this article exist is certainly worth discussing but certainly not a reason to delete this article. The decision to keep or delete should stand on the article itself, not on the existence or potential existince of other stuff.--Paul McDonald (talk) 18:14, 7 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
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