Click on the link to see the full-size comic, but it will only be available free until 2003.08.28.

Both OU and OSU have rallies before their first home football games of the season. I've attended OU's Big Red Rally for the past few years because The Pride of Oklahoma participates, but it usually seems a check-off item to the organizers - they want "the band" there to play Boomer Sooner and Oklahoma and basically stand around on the field for an hour in 90-plus-degree heat while local DJs blather about - well, who knows what. I certainly don't.

The rally's Web page is about as intricate as the rally - it hasn't even been updated since the 2001 rally. If you want the real scoop, you need to go to the Norman Transcript, where you'll find news of a post-rally concert featuring Ginuwine, Eve 6, Hoobastank, and Die Trying. Even though the Pride is the largest organization participating in the Rally, they're not mentioned.

Now look at the page for OSU's Orange Peel rally - it's way better. But what really pained me was the Aggies' booked entertainment:

• Sinbad (one of the Applemasters in Apple's discontinued program)
• Better than Ezra
• Barenaked Ladies, probably my favorite pop band
• Ben Folds, another of my favorite performers

In Stillwater! Endorsing OSU football! Now, admittedly, the Big Red Rally is free and Orange Peel costs at least $25 to attend, and the citrus rind site doesn't mention the Spirit of Oklahoma State Cowboy Marching Band either (except in one distant photo from the 2002 event), but my heart still aches. I'll have to settle for my iPod and realization that if they had a decent football program, maybe they wouldn't have to bribe big names to show up and pretend to be excited about it.

Update: I'm now told that the traditional "Big Red Rally" in the stadium is now being called the "Little Red Rally," and the concert afterward the "Big Red Rally Concert," with tickets priced at $26.50 for adults and $20 for OU students.

The entire football team, the 300-member band, the spirit squads, and about 10,000 spectators is the "LITTLE Red Rally" to defer to the concert. Unbelievable.

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