If you had to choose between beating your rivals or winning the Legends which would it be?
An earlier thread today about which of UM's top 3 rivals ND, OSU, MSU was most beatable prompted me to suggest that the new divisional setup might eventually change Michigan fans priorities about who you most love to beat, since only MSU is in the Legends division. After all, a loss to OSU doesn't affect winning the division as much as a loss within the division. And a loss the ND has no effect on winning the B1G.
I was surprised by the one reply I got, "Yes, we want to win our division. But it's arguable which would be better: winning our division but losing to these three schools, or not winning the division but beating these three. Honestly, I'd probably take the latter, assuming MSU doesn't win the division."
I know Big Ten rivalries are more important than in other conferences. Nebraska's biggest rivalry was with Oklahoma, it paled in comparison with UM-OSU. But it was built on the fact that the winner usually determined the Big 8 title, the Orange Bowl, and maybe a NC shot. As a B1G newcomer, I'm sure Nebraska fans will feel the same way, whoever consistently blocks our path in the Legends will become our biggest rival.
What do MGoBoard members think, faced with the hypothetical "beat our 3 top rivals or win the division/B1G title" ?
And a more real-world scenario: will winning divisional games change the importance of --well, at least ND or MSU???
UPDATED: Everybody good-naturedly wacked me for confusing Legends/Leaders in original post, still suffering mental block not liking the names.
Thanks for the responses, great board
Especially this year. It would be the nail in the coffin for every osu fan. Rose bowls and big ten titles will follow, just want to beat STAEE and tsio this year.
thats why you play the games
I'll take beating the rivals over the other.
I can easily hibernate for 12 months with just bragging rights over Notre Stain, tSIO and Lil' Bro.
ahh, this is a tough question. I'll take em both.
If that's not an option then I'll take rivals. Only if it's ND, MSU, and OSU.
If the overall record were the same in either case (9-3?) I would rather beat our rivals because we go head to head with them for recruits more often. On the other hand I would rather go 9-3 and win our division with losses to our rivals than go 6-6 and beat them all, because going 9-3 would almost certainly put us in better shape for the long haul than going 6-6.
I'd choose winning the division...and besides, i think it's very unlikely that we'd win the divsion, but lose to all three rivals in the same season
I would rather beat Ohio State this year because im going to that game and it will be my first time to see a live Michigan game.
Are you serious? I thought that we, the Mgoblog community, were better than that-- after all, this is not a Freep or ESPN message board where we spew such garbage.
The divisions, until they get less ridiculously laughable names, are "East," and "West." I thought we as a group had somewhat agreed on that, so you can imagine my surprise (and shame) to realize that no one yet had even politely pointed out this error to the OP. At the very least, Brian is referring to the division names as such, and we are all Mgocommunity members, the most diligent and thoroughly obsessed members of our huge fanbase. As such, it is our duty to villify these terrible names that Jim Delany continues to try to force down our throats even against the tremendous (read: 90%) public backlash.
I don't mean to overreact, but we need to nip this in the bud. The more you use these terms, the more used to it we as the fans/general public become by sheer exposure, and the less likely stubborn Delany ever has to admit that he is wrong and change them to something more respectable.
The question should be, would you rather beat tOSU and Sparty, or return to our rightful posiiton as "Champions of the West"?
Shame on you, good sir.
Or you're very deep
Winning the Big 10 western division