MGoPoll - Rivalries and National Program Perception

MSU improved over the last few seasons but they are set to take a drop and remain a second-tier program. OSU is a much more important game, especially for national perception. Living in Toledo, it has always seemed like UM-MSU is much more important within Michigan. Even Ohio Michigan fans (Michigan fans living in Ohio) don't seem to "get it." 

M-OSU by a long shot, especially now that Meyer is there and will most likely have them performing up to their traditional standards.  MSU is going to be a solid team year in and year out under Dantonio, but they are never going to be elite.  If we can butt heads (haha) with OSU and hold our own on a regular basis, I think our national profile will be as high as it's ever been.

EDIT:  I totally ignored basketball because the regular season doesn't mean nearly as much, so those choices are ruled out automatically.

Michigan/ohio, when we lost to the couch burners i was sad for a day , when we beat the ohio cheaters i was smiling pretty for a month and i still get happy thinking about it, i think MOST Michigan fans feel the same way.

LOL that M-MSU football is even on this list.

M-OSU without question. I do not think MSU will be able so sustain the success they have enjoyed over the past couple of years because of staff attrition. Dan Roushar has not performed at the level Don Treadwell had at OC and I would imagine Narduzzi will leave for his own HC job somewhere soon also.

I prefer to beat Ohio and MSU all the time to be honest.  National/Public perception be damned.

With Hoke and Meyer reinstating the old order of the Big 2 and Little 8 (i mean 10 now) I think that MSU has a fair chance at remaining a contender in the B1G for the next 5-6 years.  They still have a boatload of underclassman defensive talent and a D coordinator that knows how to use it.  In 2013/2014 they don't play Wiscy,Ohio,PSU during interdivisional play so they get favorable schedules.  The real question mark is if Iowa or Nebraska can rise up and become the #2 team in the Legends division. 

Does anyone else think that the first time Michigan and Ohio play back to back in The Game and the B1G Championship will be when they make the last game of the regular season an intradivisional game?

BEATing OHIO in football will always be highest profile and most satisfying.

M/OSU in football is a national cultural event.  Nothing we have with any other school, in any other sport, transends that.  Very few sports teams, college or pro, have a rivalry that has reached yearly "event" status.  Yankees/Red Sox, Texas/Oklahoma, Duke/North Carolina, Habs/Leafs... there aren't that many.  Once an organization has one of these (and most don't), that's it.  From a national perception perspective, that rivalry outstrips anything else. 

Nothing MSU ever does against Michigan, in any sport, will ever eclipse M/OSU football... especially not in today's landscape with divisions, championship games, tournaments and the like.  M/OSU football was built on decades of "the winner of this game goes to the Rose Bowl."  M/MSU can't face each other in the B1G championship game (in football) and there is too much parity these days to expect it.  The window for cementing a "transending cultural event" type rivalry may have closed.

Plus, there is simply no reason to believe it could occur with MSU given that there is no history of sustained "elite" success for MSU.  They're on a good 15 year run right now in basketball, but I don't see them being mentioned in the same breath as Kentucky 20 years from now.  And their "sustained success" has to conincide with "sustained success" on our end.  Had we kept up our end in the court post Fab-Five, who knows?  We could have a great B-ball rivalry going then... but it still wouldn't be "The Game."

...I can puncho yo buns...

Michigan/Ohio football by leaps, bounds, and light years ahead of all the other ones.  Every school has rivalries.  Mostly, nobody cares about them, especially the instate ones.  There are a ton of rivalries all over the country, but only a select few that really project outside the insular fanbases.  You can count 'em on one hand: the Iron Bowl, Red River, Army/Navy, Carolina/Duke, and of course, Woody vs. Bo.  Ohio State is as much a part of Michigan tradition as the winged helmet and the Big House, and Michigan is as much a part of Ohio State tradition as helmet stickers and script Ohio.  You can't say that about the other three rivalries. The Game is part of the fabric of the program.  The rest are just games we want to win more than most.

will be more of a premier event with the Brady vs. Urban hype machine going into top gear. One of us will have a big SEC win in the near future and both teams' prestige will benefit. One of us will end up every year in the new Gang of Four BCS format and that will further the impact of THE rivalry. This should be fun!

UofM vs. OSU is the game, and it will always stay that way.  People know what to expect, understand we lead the overall series and that they owned the 2000's like we owned the 90's.  It will all eventually balance out.

However, we're expected to beat MSU in football, and I've gathered the general perception is MSU is still nothing more that a regional team on a hot streak and was kicking us when we were down.  It won't last.

I don't think think OSU vs. UofM in basketball rellay garners much interest outside of the B1G.  People seem to forget we're rivals and don't really expect much one way or the other even though OSU is deemed a newer national basketball power.

However, we are expected to lose to MSU in basketball.  We are always supposed to compete, but never really win.  The rise of Izzo and the Michigan basketball scandal and subsequent decline has helped cement that.  I think turning the tide in that rivalry will have the most positive effect on our national perception, because it's what we're least expected to do.

I don't see this as being a hard question.

We could lose the msu game and still make the national championship game. The ohio game is a must win to get in. Also, do you think anyone remembers that we lost to msu after the season we had? Hell no. That game is so much more important to STAEE.

correct answer.