STARKVILLE — Cowbells will be allowed inside the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium for the Mississippi State football team’s game against Rice on New Year’s Eve.
MSU fans will be allowed to ring their cowbells in accordance to Southeastern Conference rules for home games at Davis Wade Stadium.
Presidents and chancellors of SEC schools voted to continue the cowbell compromise provision established three years ago.
The policy on artificial noisemakers allows fans to use cowbells at Scott Field only during pregame, halftime, between quarters, timeouts, after scoring plays, and during possession changes.
MSU coach Dan Mullen said Sunday evening when his team’s bowl destination was announced that he hoped fans would ring their cowbells in Memphis, Tenn., like they do in Starkville.
“It’s a unbelievable honor for them to select you as a school,” Mullen said. “The one thing we can do is show everybody we’re a team worthy of being selected to great bowl games by bringing home crowds with us for the opportunity to go get our seventh win.”
The Liberty Bowl will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 MSU team that made the program’s first trip to the event.
n In related news, Oak Grove High School junior athlete Cameron Myers became the fifth player from the Class of 2015 Sunday to give a verbal commitment to MSU.
Myers played wide receiver for the Class 6A state champion Warriors this season. He is expected to move to quarterback next season following the graduation of Kirk McCarty, a Southern Mississippi baseball signee. As a junior, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Myers caught 50 passes for 834 yards and 11 touchdowns. He had a 5-yard catch for a touchdown Friday in a 14-7 victory against Tupelo in the Mississippi High School Activities Association state title game in Jackson.
“Mississippi State has been my favorite school since my ninth-grade year, and I was ready to get this done,” Myers told Scout.com. “I just wanted to wait until the end of my junior year before I made my commitment. I feel like now is the best time to do it, and I can just enjoy everything now.”
Myers joins a class that includes Copiah-Lincoln wide receiver Donald Gray, Bruce wide receiver Jay Johnson, Yazoo City defensive end Timothy Washington, and Shreveport (La.) Woodlawn defensive tackle T.D. Moton. Gray originally signed with MSU in 2013, but he didn’t qualify academically.
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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