Meetings total 44 | All-time series Series tied 22–22 | |
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First meeting October 17, 1914
Kentucky 19, Mississippi State 13 Latest meeting October 22, 2016
Kentucky 40, Mississippi State 38 Next meeting October 21, 2017
at Starkville, MS Largest victory Mississippi State, 47–7 (1994) | ||
The Kentucky–Mississippi State football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Kentucky Wildcats football team of the University of Kentucky and Mississippi State Bulldogs football team of Mississippi State University. Both universities have been members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) since its founding in December 1932 and have played against each other for a total of 44 times.
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History
Kentucky and Mississippi State have been in the same conference since 1895, and were both founding members of the Southern Conference in the 1920s and their current conference, Southeastern Conference a decade later. Even though being in the same conference since the late 1800s, the Wildcats and the Bulldogs first met on the gridiron in 1914 with a Kentucky win of 19–13 in Lexington, Kentucky. The two teams met four straight years from 1914 to 1917 before not playing again until 1944. The two schools played six times during the 1950s before playing home-and-home series in 1972–73, 1976–77, 1984–85 and 1990–91.
In 1992, the SEC added two new members to their conference which divided the conference in two divisions, East and West. Kentucky was placed in the East and Mississippi State in the West. While dividing the conference in two divisions, the SEC created permanent cross-division opponents for its 12 members, this helped keep rivalries going such as the Alabama–Tennessee football rivalry annually, which resulted in Kentucky and Mississippi State becoming permanent cross-divisional opponents. The Wildcats and Bulldogs has then played annually since 1992 in either Lexington, Kentucky or Starkville, Mississippi. The Bulldogs are 16–8 vs the Wildcats since the cross-divisional rivalry was created.
The rivalry is one of the most evenly matched in the SEC, with the series tied at 22–22.