LSU fans are hyped up for the first major rivalry of the semester, but it isn’t about football.LSU and Texas A&M University are among other top universities battling to win the “100,000 Fans, 100,000 Pennies” promotion, a race among universities to have the largest Facebook fanbase. BlueFuego, a higher education marketing group, is sponsoring the promotion and will donate one penny for every fan to the first school to reach 100,000 fans.The winning school will donate the 100,000 pennies toward a scholarship or fund of its choice at the institution, according to BlueFuego’s Web site”The Race to 100K is a way to encourage universities to continue growing their presence on Facebook and build affinity with their community on the Web,” Brad J. Ward, chief explosion officer for BlueFuego said in a University news release.Jake Most, mass communication sophomore, said beating Texas A&M is more important to him than the 100,000 pennies.”I don’t want to lose to Texas A&M in anything,” Most said. “I’m going to join, and I’m going to tell all my friends to join.”The rivalry began because of a July 9 study, released by BlueFuego, which examined 1,035 higher education Facebook fan pages and determined LSU had the largest Facebook fanbase. The study found LSU became the first school with 50,000 fans on Facebook shortly after the College World Series, according to the news release.”It’s interesting that [the rivalry] even exists … that people care to win at something so trivial, but it shows school spirit,” said Colin Ash, business administration junior. “It definitely has a sports fan feel to it.”Ash said he was a fan on the University’s Facebook fan page before the rivalry began, and he found out about the rivalry with Texas A&M through a Facebook notification.The University’s Facebook fan page currently has 77,131 fans, while Texas A&M University has 80,125 fans.”We’re going to win,” Ash said. “We will get other ways [to promote the fan page], and we’ll come out on top.”—-Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]