The Battle for the Palladium!!!

The biggest rivalry within the young Sun Belt conference has to be the battle between MTSU and Troy, also known as the Battle for the Palladium.

The nickname of the annual meeting is due to both school's connection to Greek mythology with their mascots.

This will be my first MTSU road game that I will witness in person with the exception to seeing the Blue Raiders take on Vanderbilt back in 2005 at Vanderbilt Stadium.

This game has huge implications as it usually does. Both teams are easy favorite to win the Sun Belt this year and the winner of this game will probably take the conference title.

The Blue Raiders come into this game at 3-1 and riding on a three-game winning streak. Their three wins are against Memphis, Maryland, and Sun Belt foe North Texas.

As for the Trojans, they started off the season with a huge disappointment by getting stomped by a weak Bowling Green team on the road. They then traveled to No. 1 Florida the following week and got destroyed, but no one is knocking them for that.

Since then Troy has returned back to form to get a home win over UAB and a road win over Arkansas State. You can't forget, Arkansas State only lost to Iowa by three, so that road win is actually pretty impressive.

This will not be an easy game for the Blue Raiders. In fact, it may be the toughest game they will play all year. The Trojans have only lost twice at home since 2006. They also beat Oklahoma State in 2007 at home.

Being as unbiased as possible, I believe the Blue Raiders will take this game for two important reasons.

Their offense is by far the best in the Sun Belt as they're averaging 28.5 points per game. Dwight Dasher has the offense running smoothly and he's making smart decisions with the football.

Secondly, they finally have a great kicker in Alan Gendreau. This kid is a great weapon for a team who moves the ball into the red zone a lot. Sometimes those field goals add up and in the past the Blue Raiders have never had the luxury of kicking the field goal. They've always had to go for it on fourth down or punt the ball away.

No matter which team comes out on top, the game will be close till the final whistle. The Trojans have a good offense of their own and the MTSU defense will have to show up and play a solid game.

The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2 so look for me in the Blue Raiders section!!!! I'll be one of the nuts screaming their head off!