Hatred is a pure emotion.

Everyone from the sweetest old lady to the tiniest baby hates something. Maybe it’s kids today in the old lady’s case, or strained peas in the baby’s case, or (why not?) in the old lady’s case, too.

I know there are plenty of things I hate – pseudo-punk rock, sin taxes, Napoleon Dynamite, super-agent Scott Boras and people smarter than me.

What can I say, I’m a hateful guy.

Forget what the Black Eyed Peas say. I don’t want to know “Where is the love?”

I ask, “Where is the hate?”

As Dave Chapelle once articulated, “If you’ve got hate in your heart, let it out.”

If Panther fans have hate in their hearts, which two sub-.500 basketball teams could reasonably cause, whom could they let that hate out towards?

As part of one of the worst geographically configured conferences in the nation, the Ohio Valley Conference, Eastern really lacks a true rival school who we could hate (Apologies to Conference USA and the Big East; those are terrible geographic conferences too. In fact, the Big East should consider changing their name to the Big Everyone Not In The Pac-10, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC Conference).

See how hateful I am?

Anyway, out of the 11 teams in the OVC, Eastern has played Murray State the most over the past 25 years, a.k.a. the Samuels Age.

The Panthers and Racers have met 28 times in 25 years, enough to constitute a rivalry, right?

Wrong.

Eastern is 5-22 against Murray State, and in a true rivalry the two teams must be competitive.

Another rivalry rule that a Murray-Eastern rivalry would break is that the rivalry must be filled with an equal amount of loathing.

Fact is, Murray State is one of three Kentucky schools in the OVC, and right by four more schools in neighboring Tennessee.

I’m pretty sure the Racer fans are more concerned with those seven schools than they are with the Panthers.

Over the past eight years, Eastern has met Western Illinois eight times in non-conference play. Seems like it has the makings of a rivalry.

Well, not really.

When I transferred here, no one told me to hate Western Illinois (the school or the general region). Granted, I don’t own much purple-and-gold clothing, but if I did, would anyone yell at me and call me a “traitor?”

No.

Sadly, at the time being, Eastern’s biggest rival, the team we hate the most, is probably Eastern.

Why not re-focus this hatred? Let’s pick a rival, and let’s hate them to the best of our abilities.

Quoting the Black Eyed Peas again (the wisest people on the planet), “Let’s get it started.”

I know Panther fans have that hatred in the hearts; it’s time to let it out.

Dan Woike, a senior journalism major, isn’t all that hateful. But, you can make him hate you by emailing him at [email protected], and by telling him how much you hate this column.