Starkville, MS- On November 15, the #1 ranked Mississippi State will take on the titans of the decade, the Alabama Crimson Tide at home. The “Battle for Highway 82” has been a college football rivalry since 1896 – except this game is different. For the first time ever, Mississippi State will be the #1 team in the nation team going in Saturday night and not the Crimson Tide. Out of the ninty-eight meetings, Alabama has been dominating the rivalry 78-17-3. Mississippi State has not won once in the past six years, losing all six games by more than two touchdowns. Both teams ranking in the top ten, this game will surely be a deciding game to who will continue their journey to the NCAA playoffs.

The top four rnaked teams make it to playoffs. Alabama was previously at number two, but they lost to Ole Miss last week, forcing them into the seventh seed. This game could jump them right back into the top four if they can pull off an “upset” against the number one ranked team. However, it’s hard to truly call it an “upset” because we all know the Crimson Tide; they are never an underdog. Sporting a 5-1 record and led by Coach Nick Saban, they have played in 4 of the 5 last national championship games, and won three. Coach Saban wants to be “the first team in history to win the NCAA playoffs.” The Tide will be a tough team to beat even if they are going up against the #1 seed. The only team to beat The Tide in the past few years were the Texas A&M Aggies who The Tide played this past weekend. The Tide squashed the Aggies 59-0, they seem to be more than ready for the #1 team in the nation.

Meanwhile, Mississippi State Bulldogs are undefeated and coming off a 38-28 victory over the previously #2 Auburn Tigers. Auburn is not the only top 10 team these Bulldogs beat, they also stomped Kenny Hill and the undefeated Aggies 48-31 and The LSU Tigers 34-29. Their tight end, Malcom Johnson, leads the John Mackey award watch list, an award given to the best tight end in the nation. Johnson will be a big factor in the matchup.

Whoever wins or loses, this game will be a deciding game and a possible preview of this year’s playoff and or championship game. Tickets are nearly sold out, and majority of the seats available are nose bleed seats. Even though the game is nearly a month away, the cheapest seats start at 180$ and range all the way to nearly $6,000 (Row 5 near center field). November 15^th be sure to tune in to abc40 at 8pm ET for an entertaining game of football.