Protected rivals
- Thread starter Redmich
- Start date
Exactly what I want especially Penn State, if N wants to get back on the national scene they need a blue blood rivalry like they once had with OU.
The Iowa rivalry is a joke. It's always felt contrived. They've never won anything in most of our lifetimes and their real rival is ISU, which is a much better fit for them.
OU was great but it was many many moons ago when it actually meant anything. Their real rival is Texas.
Not sure why UCLA is being mentioned. Their real rival is USC.
Colorado would be great...border state, some real history (70 or so games) and serious hatred there. They don't really have one either as CSU is too spare of a program to really count. They've at least won a NC and a Heisman in the modern football era. With Deion, they're at least relevant again, but who knows how long that lasts. TBD whether they really want to get back to taking football seriously again. And, since they're not in conference, it's all probably a mute point.
That leaves PSU for me. I don't think they really have one. Will take some time as 18 games is not a lot of history. Maybe Rhule can help that along.
OU was great but it was many many moons ago when it actually meant anything. Their real rival is Texas.
Not sure why UCLA is being mentioned. Their real rival is USC.
Colorado would be great...border state, some real history (70 or so games) and serious hatred there. They don't really have one either as CSU is too spare of a program to really count. They've at least won a NC and a Heisman in the modern football era. With Deion, they're at least relevant again, but who knows how long that lasts. TBD whether they really want to get back to taking football seriously again. And, since they're not in conference, it's all probably a mute point.
That leaves PSU for me. I don't think they really have one. Will take some time as 18 games is not a lot of history. Maybe Rhule can help that along.
Last edited:
Not in favor of a plan where different schools have a different number of protected rivals. They should each have the same number. I'd be in favor of 2 protected rivals for each school. And it's not in the cards to have zero protected rivals if there are no divisions. Michigan would never go along with that plan. Ohio State and MSU are schools that they must play every year. And those protected rivals are bread and butter games for TV viewership.
I was going on the premise of having two protected rivals. So UCLA and USC would be each others rival obviously.. and we would be UCLA’s other one.
We have a history with Penn State and UCLA through the years long before ever being in the BiG TeN. We were in fact Penn State’s protected rival when we first joined, weren’t we?
By the way, Colorado isn’t even in the BiG TeN as far as I know
Those meeting who have to approve the schedule going forward (ADs) in a 16 team team league. It is one of the proposals (flex protect option) they are voting on - not sure if it will pass. It recognizes that different schools have differing numbers and perceived importance of historical rivals
I’ll be the devil’s advocate and say we have a longer history with Minnesota than any other team in the conference..
Personally I’m for 3 permanent rivals.
Minnesota
Ioway
UCLA
Meh
Iowa, Minnesoda and Wisconsin can all have each other. I know we’ve sucked lately but I don’t want to settle for being yet another mediocre Midwest team. Penn State and UCLA gives us something higher to shoot for and keeps us in the national spotlight. Of course we still have to do our part and win some damn games.
I know some Husker fans are opposed to making Iowa one of our protected rivals. However, I think the facts actually argue for Iowa being a protected rival. I just don't see more Husker fan hatred expressed toward any other B1G team as much as it's being directed at Iowa. AND that to me is the definition of a rival. You love to hate them.
I think the feeling is mutual on both sides of the river..
I know Gopher fans hate Wisconsin fans more than any other school.. Same goes for Wisconsin..
I would be ok with Michigan as a protected rival. In fact, I would prefer them over Penn State.
A rivalry is a two-way street. Living in Michigan, I can tell you that no diehard Michigan fans I know of remotely consider Nebraska to be a rival of theirs other than another team in their conference. They're far too focused on hating Ohio State and Michigan State.
Before we joined the B1G we played Minnesota 6 times in a 30 year span. Not one of those games were close and not one of those games has an significance to college football
UCLA however, we’ve played 10 times and 4 of those games both teams were ranked in the top 10. Almost always a close game and rivalry is natural and not forced due to conference alignment.
Sker’s have played Minnesota in every decade from 1930’s to 1990’s …Rest my case..
I guess it'll still depend on divisions/pods etc. If you're in the same division/pod, it doesn't matter. Correct??
That's what a few of us have been saying for years but everyone here seems to disagree. They want freaking Iowa.
I get the ease of travel part, especially over the Thanksgiving holiday, but c'mon. We want this program to return to the national spotlight. It's not going to get there with a Black Friday game against Iowa that nobody in the country cares about.
I want Iowa and Penn State, but would settle for UCLA. Not that my wants matter in this while debacle lol
I agree 1000% but how do I reconcile they've beaten us like what...6 of the last 7 years??...or whatever it is. We need to smash their gawd damn face into the gravel a few consecutive seasons.
The bottom line is there has to be one team geographically Playing someone on Black Friday.
Common sense applies on the final weekend..
Hint UCLA against USC..
Could be a scheme where they can have teams play each other more often without being protected Rivals.... We will have one protected rival (Iowa) and play Michigan and Ohio State each 5 out 6 years and long as it's an easy win for them and gets TV ratings.
Penn st - Indiana - Rutgers - Maryland - MSU all played OSU and Michigan every single year up to now. The minute a blue blood starts complaining about playing other blue bloods they should forfeit their blue blood status - we have had it really easy in the big ten west compared to the eastern schools
Okay the blue bloods are in no particular order.
USC
Michigan
Ohio St
Nebraska
Penn St
Next tier;
Arguably Michigan St has a higher winning pct than UCLA..
I think outside of NU fans that's already happened. I'd prefer geographically based permanent rivals and play everyone else an equal amount, or based on recent results like the NFL.
I have no opinion. Could not care less. Let’s just focus on beating whoever the B1G tells us to play. Right now, we are a team that could barely beat Rutgers and hasn’t won **** in 8 years. Just win baby. I don’t care who it is. Just beat them. Rivalries will emerge over time.
Yeah, I said that in my post. The lines were getting a little blurred between actual rivals and perceived/forced/protected rivals with the mention of OU.
Yeah, but that's because we've sucked, not because they've been good. That doesn't make a rivalry.
Yeah, well if you wanna walk with the big dogs, you gotta piss in the tall grass. Here are the blue blood in conference rivals as far as I can tell (maybe I have some wrong?)
USC
Tier 1: UCLA - Not changing
Tier 2: Open (although I assume they will always have ND out of conference) - possible opening
Michigan
Tier 1: Ohio St - Not changing
Tier 2: Michigan St - Not changing
Ohio St
Tier 1: Michigan - Not changing
Tier 2: Penn St - possible opening
Nebraska
Tier 1: Iowa
Tier 2: Minnesota? Wisconsin?
Penn St
Tier 1: Ohio State - possible opening
Tier 2: Michigan St - possible opening
So, the way I see things, the only possible opening are...
USC's tier 2 (or 3 if you include ND)
Ohio St's tier 2
Penn St's tier 1
Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin...meh. Talk about games nobody outside of those programs cares about. Fast track toward becoming even more irrelevant. Unless we want to be someone's sloppy seconds, we need to develop a rivalry with Penn St. Hopefully Rhule can help that along.
This ^
You look at that list of conference blue bloods and their rivals...Nebraska is so "which of these things is not like the other"
There are still quite a few people outside of Nebraska who consider us a blue blood so I don't think it's happened completely yet. But it's getting dangerously closer every year. We're pinned inside the 5 yard line and it's 3rd and 20.
And every game between that time frame was a blowout. There has never been a good game in the series. Either Nebraska beat the **** out of Minnesota or we played like ****. Only one time in the history of the matchup have both teams bee ranked.
There’s no epic exciting matchups. Zero. There’s no Steve Taylor vs Troy Aikman back to back years of top 5 mathups. Remember Nebraska vs UCLA was the 3rd ever “on the road” college gameday in 1994. How many times has college game day visited for Minnesota vs Nebraska?
No one gives a F about Minnesota Gopher football. No one gets excited about the game. Even our players don’t care about Minnesota. Notice they always come out flat against them. No one cares about Minnesota… rest my case
I know you weren’t around during the Devaney era, but games from 1963-1968 were very hotly contested games.
Granted Devaney and Osborne never lost a game to the Gophers but the over all series is 25-36-2.
It is also much easier to attend a games in Minneapolis than it is to Pasadena or Happy Valley if you happen to travel to games like myself..
I hope Rhule‘s team doesn’t have the same attitude you have to start the season or it’s going to be a long night in Minneapolis on August 31..
I like playing Iowa at the end of the regular season. It's a good border rivalry, imo.
As far as B1G rivalry games goes it's The Game, tOSU vs Michigan, that is the true must-see every year. Any other "rivalry" game in the B1G is in a distant 2nd place.
As far as B1G rivalry games goes it's The Game, tOSU vs Michigan, that is the true must-see every year. Any other "rivalry" game in the B1G is in a distant 2nd place.
Fairest thing to do that would make the most logistical sense would be one. For us and Iowa.
Meatchicken needs to quit acting like they invented the game of football lol. Big fingernails realignment required sacrifices. They need to determine who they hate more - OSU or MSU.
Pick and move on. They'll still likely play their other "rival@ most years anyway.
So tired of the elitist attitude of that university and program. Worse than freaking Texass sometimes I swear...
Meatchicken needs to quit acting like they invented the game of football lol. Big fingernails realignment required sacrifices. They need to determine who they hate more - OSU or MSU.
Pick and move on. They'll still likely play their other "rival@ most years anyway.
So tired of the elitist attitude of that university and program. Worse than freaking Texass sometimes I swear...
What about indiana-Purdue?! Or northwestern-illinois?!
Don’t tell me you’re selling wisconsin-Minn short also?!?
