4 Things Mississippians and Alabamians Will Never Agree On

Grab a chair and ask a Mississippian and an Alabamian whose state has the better blues, the better casinos or the better flag.

You’ll hear confident answers from both sides, and they’re willing to state their case.

Here’s what they’re arguing about, so you know what you’re stepping into at the next family cookout.

1. Iron Bowl or Egg Bowl

Many fans on both sides of the state line will tell you their game is the better rivalry.

Mississippi’s Egg Bowl pits Ole Miss against Mississippi State, and the rivalry goes back to 1901.

Mississippi State won the first game, 17-0.

The school’s athletics site says the Golden Egg trophy has been awarded since 1927.

The Iron Bowl pits the University of Alabama against Auburn, and the Encyclopedia of Alabama says the two schools first played it in 1893.

Auburn won that first game 32-22 at Lakeview Park in Birmingham.

The schools stopped playing after 1907 and didn’t meet again until 1948.

From 1948 until 1989, the game was played annually at Birmingham’s Legion Field.

Ask which of the two games is better, and you’ll usually get an answer that matches the speaker’s school.

2. Birthplace or Father of the Blues

Many people in both states claim a piece of the blues.

W. C. Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1873, and is known as the Father of the Blues.

The Mississippi Encyclopedia says he was dubbed the Father of the Blues because of his pioneering song publishing work.

Mississippi’s Delta, meanwhile, is often called the Birthplace of the Blues.

But the encyclopedia says there’s scant evidence the music began in the Delta rather than elsewhere in the South.

Charles Peabody documented blues lyrics near Clarksdale during a 1901-1902 excavation.

Charley Patton, a native of Edwards, has been called the Father of the Delta Blues.

Which father gets the credit tends to depend on whom you ask, and on which state you’re standing in.

3. Casinos and the Lottery

You can trace Mississippi’s gambling history along its coast.

In 1992, dockside casino gambling rejuvenated tourism on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

After Hurricane Katrina, the state authorized land-based casinos within 800 feet of the shoreline.

Mississippi’s lottery tickets went on sale on Nov. 25, 2019.

Mississippi was one of only six states without a lottery for decades.

The Alabama Reflector reported in February 2026 that Alabama was the last state east of the Mississippi River without a lottery.

The Poarch Creek Band of Indians owns casinos in Montgomery, Atmore and Wetumpka.

As of that report, you could cross from Mississippi into Alabama and go from a state with a lottery to one without.

4. State Flags

Alabama’s state flag is a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a white field, set by a law passed in 1895.

The 1895 act didn’t say whether the flag should be square or rectangular, and a 1987 attorney general’s opinion settled on rectangular.

Mississippi voters approved a new state flag in November 2020.

The new design features a magnolia flower surrounded by twenty white stars.

The design also has one gold star and a navy banner reading “In God We Trust.”

A 2020 bill created a commission to design the new flag.

Fly either flag, and you’re flying a crimson cross set by an 1895 law or a magnolia that voters approved in 2020, and you’d never mistake one for the other.

Two Differences That Need No Debate

Not every gap between the two states turns into an argument.

Alabama's highest point, Cheaha Mountain, is 2,407 feet above sea level.

The Mississippi Encyclopedia lists Mississippi's highest land surface, Woodall Mountain, at 806 feet, in the northeastern Tishomingo Hills near Tennessee and Alabama.

Climb Cheaha, and you're standing 1,601 feet higher than Woodall's summit.

The Gulf Coast beaches differ too.

The Mississippi Encyclopedia says engineers began dredging sand from the Gulf in 1951 to add a lengthy beach in front of the seawall.

A twenty-six-mile-long seawall was completed in 1926.