Obligatory "Is Iowa a Rival" Thread

Is Iowa a Rivalry for Nebraska?

  • Total voters
    193
Hayseed said:
Wisconsin is our rival in this league.
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Nobody is going to agree with me, but I think that, for Nebraska, the "rival" is the team that stands between you and the league championship (like Oklahoma was under Devaney and Osborne. Now, leagues are big (and split into halves) and have a league championship - so if you want to stretch and apply my definition today, it would be the team we expect to battle us for the top of our side of the Big 10 - which is Wisconsin.

However, I think that the whole concept of "rivals" is now kind of dumb. Particularly when you don't get to play some teams again for years, thanks to the large leagues and resulting scheduling issues. There will still be natural rivals if they split a state or a region, like Alabama vs Auburn or Michigan vs Ohio St. but for Nebraska every game is important and we don't NEED a special "enemy". Except maybe Colorado.

 
Hayseed said:
Wisconsin is our rival in this league. I'm not sure why anybody thinks Iowa would be other than location.
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How do you figure? They've beaten us 6 times in a row and 8 of the last 9. They're our new Texas (for now).

Iowa is closer to being a rival now that they've won some but time will tell. I think 5 years from now they'll be our doormat.

The teams that seem most like rivals as far as the series have gone are Northwestern and Minnesota. Iowa gets mentioned more often because of proximity - I'll agree with you there.

 
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cheekygeek said:
Nobody is going to agree with me, but I think that, for Nebraska, the "rival" is the team that stands between you and the league championship (like Oklahoma was under Devaney and Osborne. Now, leagues are big (and split into halves) and have a league championship - so if you want to stretch and apply my definition today, it would be the team we expect to battle us for the top of our side of the Big 10 - which is Wisconsin.

However, I think that the whole concept of "rivals" is now kind of dumb. Particularly when you don't get to play some teams again for years, thanks to the large leagues and resulting scheduling issues. There will still be natural rivals if they split a state or a region, like Alabama vs Auburn or Michigan vs Ohio St. but for Nebraska every game is important and we don't NEED a special "enemy". Except maybe Colorado.
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If it's the team that stands between us and a league championship, so far, everyone's been our rival. But, we're on our way to narrowing it down. Iowa is our Colorado. Hate 'em and really want to beat 'em but Wiscy is where it's at....when we start holding up our end of the deal.

 
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