Total years 1 | All-time series Georgia State, 1–0 | |
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First series 2015–16
Georgia State 14, Georgia Southern 7 Latest series 2015–16
Georgia State 14, Georgia Southern 7 Largest victory Georgia State, 14–7 (2015–16) Longest streak Georgia State, 1 (2015–16 to present) | ||
The Georgia Southern–Georgia State rivalry is a college athletics rivalry between the Georgia Southern University Eagles and Georgia State University Panthers, also known as Modern Day Hate. Both schools are members of the Sun Belt Conference. While the teams have only met three times in football (due to Georgia State beginning their program in 2010), the rivalry dates back to the 1970s in basketball and other sports.
Contents
History
Georgia Southern and Georgia State have only competed against each other in football since 2014. They played annually in basketball from the 1971–72 to 1980–81 seasons, 1995–96 and 1996–97, and 2009–10 to 2013–14 out-of-conference and as conference mates from the 1985–86 to 1991–92 seasons (in the Trans America Athletic Conference, which is now the Atlantic Sun Conference) and since the 2014–15 season in the Sun Belt Conference. As of 2015, Georgia Southern has a 34–17 lead in the all-time series.
Since both schools can be abbreviated GSU, a point of conflict between the two schools is that both fan-bases claim that their university is, in fact, the real GSU. Georgia State lays claim to the initials as it became a university (and therefore GSU) long before Georgia Southern did in 1990 (Georgia State became a university in 1969). Also, Georgia State's URL and official logo both contain the abbreviation. Georgia Southern officially uses GS in all of their branding.
The beginning of the football rivalry was initiated after the hire of former Appalachian State (a major rival of Georgia Southern) athletic director Charlie Cobb to the same position at GSU. During Georgia State's press release introducing Cobb, he revealed that Georgia Southern's athletic director Tom Kleinlein told him "welcome, now the war is on." The two teams met on the gridiron during the 2014 football season at Georgia Dome. During the run up to the game, fans from both teams expressed their dislike for the other over social media outlets such as Twitter, at times trending with tags of "SouthernNotState" and "StateNotSouthern" both of which were used as slogans for shirts given out by both universities. During the period before the game, fans dubbed the matchup as "Modern Day Hate," a play on the rivalry between Georgia Tech and UGA, Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. Georgia Southern beat Georgia State by a final score of 69–31, while drawing the second largest crowd of 28,427 for any Georgia State game. In 2015, Georgia State beat Georgia Southern 34–7 to give the worst home defeat for Georgia Southern in school history. Currently, Georgia State leads Georgia Southern, 2-1.
Rivalry series
On October 1, 2015, both schools' athletic directors announced the beginning of an annual "rivalry series" in which the winner takes home the Rivalry Series trophy and bragging rights at the following year's football game. The trophy will be awarded to the school that defeats the other in a points-based system that encompasses all sports. Most wins will count as 1 point with football counting as 2 points. 2 points total are awarded to community service projects, and 1 to the school with the highest departmental GPA. Points will be totaled at the end of each academic school year. See external links section for full points explanation and scoreboard.
Point Accumulation Rules
The rivalry series tallies wins in each sport between Georgia State and Georgia Southern, the school with the most points at the end of the athletic year winning the trophy. One win doesn't necessarily equate to one point, however, and instead the series will be governed by a set of rules, as follows;
During the post-season, all team sports have the opportunity to accumulate more points with wins over the other team. If that win leads to a birth in an NCAA tournament by way of a conference automatic bid, double points will be awarded.
In addition to sports, two points will be awarded to the school who's athletes finish fall and spring semester with the highest average GPA. Also, one point per semester will be awarded to each school that completes a comparable community service project which is agreed upon by both schools.
Football game results
Georgia Southern's first official season was in 1924. But due to World War II, football at the school was suspended in 1941 and did not resume until 1981. Georgia State's first season was in 2010. Teams did not meet in out-of-conference games prior to both being members of the Sun Belt upon Georgia Southern's arrival in 2014.
Men's basketball game results
Table shows results since both teams officially entered NCAA basketball competition with one another.