First a disclaimer, no, I don't literally mean that Texas invaded Poland in the late 30's, or that LSU held Eastern Europe under an iron fist for a good part of the 20th century. What I do mean to say is that from a Razorback perspective neither one of these baseball teams inspires much love in a Hog's heart. Both LSU and Texas have inflicted enough wounds on us over the years in a range of sports. Enough hurt to make us readily sympathize with Poland, actually.
What we have here are two good baseball teams hitting on all cylinders at the moment. It is hard to believe that one of them is actually going to lose the College World Series Final as early as Tuesday night possibly. Arkansans love to see Texas lose at anything. So you could keep that in mind and conference loyalty in mind as well and pull for Stalin. But ask yourself this, do you really think LSU fans would root for Arkansas if we had knocked them out of Omaha, a place where they expect a national title everytime they arrive, as if it were a birthright? If you still can see those LSU homeruns heading to the outfield and can still hear the ping of the bat, as I painfully still can, then you might be so inclined to see Hitler march on and take the Moscow on the bayou.
So it is a tough situation here. Do you pull for the old rival that goes back decades or the emerging rival that just crossed your border and crushed your tired troops in a 14-5 whoopin? And, yes, I do think LSU is an emerging rival for Arkansas in the SEC. Just ask LSU fans how badly they want to beat us in November in Baton Rouge. And just ask any Arkansas baseball fan how much he or she wants to beat LSU the next time we play them. It will take some more time for the sports hatred to grow, but I think the first steps have been taken by LSU and Arkansas towards that end, the show down in Omaha being one recent step.
My solution for LSU vs. Texas is to just ignore the fact that there is going to be a winner and concentrate on the fact that one of them is going home having lost out, just like the six other teams that arrived in Omaha. If someone asks me who won the College World Series in 2009, I'll just say I don't know. But I can tell you who lost!