Rank your BIG 10 rivals

[NJCat83588]

Interesting that the top 4 teams you consider rivals, or maybe more accurately dislike the most, seem to be more about the fans than the actual players and teams. I would bet that fan dislike is the biggest reason for many others who claim to dislike programs.

+1. How anyone can consider OSU a "Rival" is beyond me. A rivalry is a series in which both teams have had some success. The OSU series is more of a beat-down from NU's perspective.

 

[pawildcat_rivals209725]

+1. How anyone can consider OSU a "Rival" is beyond me. A rivalry is a series in which both teams have had some success. The OSU series is more of a beat-down from NU's perspective.

I think more in terms of whom I'd LIKE to see us beat, not necessarily the ones we beat the most. Looking at it from your perspective, Illinois and Indiana are probably the only lifetime rivals we've had in the B1G. Most of the other teams have a substantial edge over us, although we've had some success against them in the past 20 years.

 

[pawildcat_rivals209725]

Interesting that the top 4 teams you consider rivals, or maybe more accurately dislike the most, seem to be more about the fans than the actual players and teams. I would bet that fan dislike is the biggest reason for many others who claim to dislike programs.

Interesting that the top 4 teams you consider rivals, or maybe more accurately dislike the most, seem to be more about the fans than the actual players and teams. I would bet that fan dislike is the biggest reason for many others who claim to dislike programs.

That would be a fair statement. Certainly my opinion of a school's program is partially formed by its fan base. To be fair, I've probably run into a disproportionate number of frat boys at Ohio State games. A Wisconsin fan was so obnoxious to us at one NU home game that my wife dropped the F-bomb on him, the only time I've heard her use that word in 32 years of marriage.

You, on the other hand, seem like a reasonable person.

 

[NJCat83588]

I think more in terms of whom I'd LIKE to see us beat, not necessarily the ones we beat the most. Looking at it from your perspective, Illinois and Indiana are probably the only lifetime rivals we've had in the B1G. Most of the other teams have a substantial edge over us, although we've had some success against them in the past 20 years.

Point well taken. I think the clock starts when NU football was reborn in 1995, so the last 20 years is a pretty reasonable time window. From that perspective, I'd see Wisconsin and Iowa in addition to the 2 schools you mention as real rivalries, from the competitiveness and frequency of play. The rest of the Big 10 teams don't really hit my radar screen as "rivalries".

 

[Frabjous_rivals]

Rutgers? Fugeddaboutit!

 

[klemman]

That would be a fair statement. Certainly my opinion of a school's program is partially formed by its fan base. To be fair, I've probably run into a disproportionate number of frat boys at Ohio State games. A Wisconsin fan was so obnoxious to us at one NU home game that my wife dropped the F-bomb on him, the only time I've heard her use that word in 32 years of marriage.

You, on the other hand, seem like a reasonable person.

Believe it or not, I'm not the only reasonable OSU fan, but as usual the squeaky wheel makes the most noise (or something like that). It just so happens that there are a lot of wheels on the Buckeye bandwagon, so unfortunately even if the percentage of squeaky ones aren't greater than those in similar programs, the numbers are high.

I'm not any different. Growing up to me the perfect season was beating an undefeated Michigan to play and undefeated USC in the Rosebowl. So inadvertently, my second favorite team became Michigan and third was USC. Then came the 90's and the ridicule from the Michigan fans and the media's love of USC in the 2000's. They then became my two most hated teams, until Florida and Alabama came around.

So it's no different for OSU fans And their feelings for other teams. Which is more of a dislike for a fanbase's minority and media hype.

 

[EvanstonCat]

+1. How anyone can consider OSU a "Rival" is beyond me. A rivalry is a series in which both teams have had some success. The OSU series is more of a beat-down from NU's perspective.

Fair. We are not rivals. But, I hate dem summabitches more than anything. It ain't right, but they get my dander up more than the Taliban.

 

[NJCat83588]

Fair. We are not rivals. But, I hate dem summabitches more than anything. It ain't right, but they get my dander up more than the Taliban.

But are they worse than ISIS?

 

[GlideCat]

Fair. We are not rivals. But, I hate dem summabitches more than anything. It ain't right, but they get my dander up more than the Taliban.

This was clearly said as a joke and taken as so. But reading it reminded me of John Lennon's "People love us more than they love Jesus (paraphrased)" quote. Bottom line, Lennon was simply stating an obvious fact.

In terms of true emotion, ECat's statement is likely true. Many - if not most - of us probably do feel stronger actual emotions about football teams and their fans than we do about Taliban and ISIS. No one from ISIS has ever pounded on the window of a restaurant and screamed at me when I was trying to have dinner with my family. Nebraska fans have done that.

And I am unusual in that I spent 2.5 years in Afghanistan and was shot at (the phrase conveys more danger and excitement than the reality of the experience - I was a contractor cowering and running away from any fighting) by Taliban forces. But even so, I feel very little real emotion about the guys a couple of hundred yards away shooting in my (and a large group of other people's) general direction compared against how mad I get remembering those drunken Nebraska idiots after the Alamo Bowl.

 

[klemman]

Another example of how we tend to dislike other teams as much because of their fans than the teams themselves, if not more so. And it's usually based on the actions of a few rather than the fanbase's as a whole.

An individual or small group of,fans pounded on a window and screamed at GlideCat. Not every Nebraska fan who passed by.

And I completely agree with him that for better or worse sports love/hate is much more emotional for us fans than many things we should be more emotional about. That's the great and bad thing about sports.

 

[EvanstonCat]

Another example of how we tend to dislike other teams as much because of their fans than the teams themselves, if not more so. And it's usually based on the actions of a few rather than the fanbase's as a whole.

An individual or small group of,fans pounded on a window and screamed at GlideCat. Not every Nebraska fan who passed by.

And I completely agree with him that for better or worse sports love/hate is much more emotional for us fans than many things we should be more emotional about. That's the great and bad thing about sports.

Not true. One of my good friends from B-School is a Buckeye fan. I just visited him in Chicago and we spoke about dOSU's cheating ways and he got all emotional defending dem sons of bitches. It's not so much the fans I hate (who are often lewd, crude, and rude), but the institutional cheating and everything they do to exploit student athletes and keep them eligible without educating them in order to win football games that incites my animosity. That and the 43 years of rape, murder and torture (excepting one glorious year in 2005) at their vile cheating hands.