BIG TEN RIVALS ( A work in progress... )

Good discussion going here.

I agree on the Penn State points. It was potentially a good rivalry that, because of the Big 10 adding Rutgers and Maryland, never got off the ground.

Give Iowa some credit. They did beat last year and played LSU tough in the bowl game. Maybe they are about to turn a bit of a corner. They do return a promising young QB.

Wisky has to be the most likely to develop into a rivalry. Would help if the game was moved to the end of the season so it could potentially be a defacto division title contest.

NW? Maybe. There has been some juice with the Wildcat contests. Will that continue? Anybody's guess. But I like it.

And, last point, I think it's OK to have multiple "rivals" until one opponent begins to stand out above the rest.

 
The idea that in terms of football strength that Wisc > NW > Iowa is just because it was that way when you joined the conference. But historically those three are about the same. If anything NW could lose Fitzgerald and have a long inglorious period.

Plus you had already played the other Iowa right? They were usually a win but sometimes a lurking upset threat. That's basically what Illinois is.

 
When you have to decide who your rival is, you don't have one. We will know when we do, until then it seems fake, made up like Colorado and Mizzou with us. We never respected what they called a rival. I really do not want to lumped in that group. We play several good teams. Lets see how it shakes out.

 
Saint Boseph said:
I gotta emphasize this since I see and hear so many Nebraska fans talking about a rivalry with Wisconsin.

Wisconsin fans do not care about us or having a rivalry. And I don't blame them, they've taken us to the woodshed 2 out of 3 times, and almost made it a third. Us declaring them a rival or clamoring for a rivalry with them reeks too much of Colorado declaring us rivals back in the day. A buddy of mine who is from Madison and a raging badgers fan has a major superiority complex when we talk football. He was pretty surprised that alot of us think UW-NU is or could be a rivalry. He basically said we're not on their radar since we haven't caused them much problem, and said most wisconsin fans feel this way. Minnesota and MSU, as of late, draws more juice for them than we do.
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Dude, we've played a measly 3 games. When Wisconsin leads the series over us umpteen-12 and we're still declaring them a rival, then I'll say it reeks of Colorado. We beat them this year and the series is tied. And as far as us not being on their radar? Not taking us seriously? Well my friend, that's when days like black friday, 2001 happen.

 
I believe NU Wiscy is currently tied 4-4-1 if Im not mistaken.

Nobody is clamoring for a rival. The point of the thread was to see where we were three years in. Obviously its going to take a long time to develop a concrete rival. But three years in, NW is the game that looks to be the most compelling. That is all.

 
1995 Redux said:
I believe NU Wiscy is currently tied 4-4-1 if Im not mistaken.

Nobody is clamoring for a rival. The point of the thread was to see where we were three years in. Obviously its going to take a long time to develop a concrete rival. But three years in, NW is the game that looks to be the most compelling. That is all.
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Exactly. It's fun to talk about when we have nothing to talk about.
 
deedsker said:
1995 Redux said:
I believe NU Wiscy is currently tied 4-4-1 if Im not mistaken.

Nobody is clamoring for a rival. The point of the thread was to see where we were three years in. Obviously its going to take a long time to develop a concrete rival. But three years in, NW is the game that looks to be the most compelling. That is all.
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Exactly. It's fun to talk about when we have nothing to talk about.
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Doesn't that mean we have something to talk about then?
 
jsneb83 said:
deedsker said:
1995 Redux said:
I believe NU Wiscy is currently tied 4-4-1 if Im not mistaken.

Nobody is clamoring for a rival. The point of the thread was to see where we were three years in. Obviously its going to take a long time to develop a concrete rival. But three years in, NW is the game that looks to be the most compelling. That is all.
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Exactly. It's fun to talk about when we have nothing to talk about.
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Doesn't that mean we have something to talk about then?
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Yes, we are talking about the very thing filling in for the lack of things to talk about. Thus, we have something to talk about, although, nothing else is available to talk about.
 
Wisconsin...we have to go with the team that will have (historically speaking) the best record and /or highest ranking when we meet them.

We owe Iowa, though.

 
Wisconsin has the best chance to be our long term rival. Even then I don't see them having enough long term success to truly make it into a big rivalry on the national stage like OU was for so many years.they are good now but I'm not sold they will be where there are now 15-20 years from now.

 
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I think Wisconsin has established they are here to stay. The question now is will we live up to being their rival. I really do not think they are too concerned about Nebraska currently. They have been better than us for close to ten years I think.

 
On the national scene the truly great college football rivals occur when the outcome was significant in terms of ratings, conf titles and bowl selections. It seems like we are a long way from having a significant BIG rival. One think I'm convinced of .... such a rivalry has to develop naturally and not be forced by a few in the media who are trying to hype a TV rating.

 
IlliniHusker said:
On the national scene the truly great college football rivals occur when the outcome was significant in terms of ratings, conf titles and bowl selections. It seems like we are a long way from having a significant BIG rival. One think I'm convinced of .... such a rivalry has to develop naturally and not be forced by a few in the media who are trying to hype a TV rating.
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Ironically the tv networks lost a lot when so many good rivalries were destroyed by realignment.

 
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