Sports Rivalries
Just saw an interesting NY Times article about two science guys who decided to add some real data to the biggest rivalries in all of sports. Essentially these guys asked fans all over the country of various teams to give a total of 100 points divided amongst their teams biggest rivalries. For example, a UM fan could give 100 points to OSU or 75 to OSU, 20 to MSU and 5 to ND. The downside to this is that teams with only one true rival tend to do best, which is how Arizona-ASU becomes the biggest rivalry in sports. Some interesting BIG findings:
OSU gives us 91 points as their biggest rival, but we only give them 68
MSU gives us 66 points, but we only give them 17
ND gives us 24 points, but we only give them 12
PSU considers us one their 3rd biggest rival (behind OSU and Pitt) with 17 points, but we cant be bothered and don't even give them a whole point
Cent Mich considers MSU their 2nd biggest rival behind Western
The biggest discrepancy is BC/ND with BC giving ND 74 points and ND only giving 2 shits back
Here is the link to the article:
Here is the direct link to the website for those that want to play around with it or take the survey:
October 15th, 2019 at 9:50 AM ^
20 years ago we would have given OSU 90 pts.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:08 AM ^
20 years ago we beat OSU on the regular.
October 15th, 2019 at 12:34 PM ^
Or you know we just have more rivalries.
60-70 seems about right when you have an instate rival.
October 15th, 2019 at 12:50 PM ^
Someone doesn't remember 20 years ago.
In 1999 MSU had Saban and beat us.
October 15th, 2019 at 9:52 AM ^
Kind of shocked that MSU didn't give Michigan all 100 points.
October 15th, 2019 at 9:58 AM ^
At first I thought, wow, that is way less than I expected MSU to allot for Michigan. But then I had to think like a Sparty and figured they knew we were not going to have a very high number for them, so they tried to lowball it to show they don't care about us.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:07 AM ^
They have a pretty long history with notre dame, so it's not surprising. I am surprised that wisconsin rates so highly for msu.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:11 AM ^
Things got pretty intense during the Kirk Cousins-Russell Wilson era. Also some basketball animosity probably helped. But all those days are over now.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:16 AM ^
Sparty hated Bo Ryan more than any Michigan basketball coach.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
It is a diary thing, you wouldn't understand!
October 15th, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^
Had to set some points aside for couches
October 15th, 2019 at 10:33 AM ^
And dumbasses.
October 15th, 2019 at 2:38 PM ^
Come on man, they counted as high as they could.
October 15th, 2019 at 9:55 AM ^
This seems like a terrible way to quantify this.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:38 AM ^
Exactly
Michigan/OSU
Alabama/Auburn
OU/Texas
ND/USC
Michigan/MSU
UGA/FLA
Oregon/Oregon St.
could go on but wont. There's 8 more that would come to mind before AZ/AZ St. would even be considered.
October 15th, 2019 at 11:31 AM ^
It kind of makes sense. Arizona and ASU are so isolated that all they have to care about is each other. Bama and Auburn fans hate each other, but they also have other teams drawing their attention. The methodology probably needs updating to account for depth of hatred, rather than considering all hatred equal.
October 15th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
Yeah you kind need a metric like "How upset would you be if your team lost to this team?" or a slightly less BPONE version like "How important is winning this game to your team's season?"
October 15th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
How would you do it?
I get that Auburn & Alabama will move the needle for most people than the Arizonas, but the study didn't measure name recognition.
What I find interesting is that (as "they" say) Michigan's rivalries are asymmetrical. In a way, we do tend to get everyone's best game (or, at least more than we give them).
October 15th, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
I would agree it's a terrible way to quantify who the top rivalry is. I think a lot of top teams will have multiple rivals, which means they wouldn't be considered for the biggest rivalry.
However, I think it is an interesting and meaningful way to look at one school and see who fans consider to be their rivals.
October 15th, 2019 at 9:56 AM ^
Illinois gave us 110 points. And Rutgers stole some of Minnesota's points and gave us 115.
October 15th, 2019 at 9:56 AM ^
Michigan gets everyone's best rivalry-attitude shot. The data suggests that we are much more dismissive to teams than they are to us. I wonder if that sentiment exists within the locker room and manifests on the field.
OSU focuses ruthlessly on beating Michigan in everything they do. We've publicly called it just the next game on the schedule before. Hubris.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:05 AM ^
And yet pretty much every team at Michigan has had success against osu recently.
Most of the teams on campus make no bones about it who the team to beat is. Erik Bakich doesn’t even call them by name.
October 15th, 2019 at 11:00 AM ^
Precisely.
I've been saying this forever and somehow I don't think the coaches convey this to the team in a way that connects. I can't say this for Penn St., Nebraska, Rutger, or MD since they are the newcomers, but I live in a place where everyone is a transplant. There are people from all over B1G country. For all of the traditional B1G teams - Michigan is the team they most want to beat. Trust me on this. Michigan gets everyone's best shot. All the teams in the B1G look at that schedule and see when the M game is and they all dial it up a few notches for that game. This needs to get drilled into the teams head on a daily if not hourly basis.
October 15th, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
This is fans. The team knows if they don't beat OSU the season is meaningless, they just get beat anyways
October 15th, 2019 at 10:03 AM ^
OSU gives us 91 points as their biggest rival, but we only give them 68
That's ridiculous. Who is M's rival then?
October 15th, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
Look at the actual site. It breaks down every team we give hate points to.
FLORIDA is on the list of rivalries. I shit you not.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:14 AM ^
Michigan and Florida have developed a nice little out of conference grudge.
2003 Outback, 2007 Citrus, 2015 Citrus, Opener in 2017, 2019 Peach Bowl. These were all pretty entertaining games with some stakes. Add to that Michigan has sent Florida packing in two NCAA tournaments since 2013. I don't think it could be called a true "rivalry" but it is something.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:17 AM ^
That's not the point. OSU fans clearly get it -- hence the 91 points. But M fans on average giving OSU 68 is just plain silly.
I gave OSU 90 points so I could give ND and Moo U some. I gave Minny 1 point for the Brown Jug.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:34 AM ^
No shit. I was simply pointing out that Florida is on the list and that it’s ridiculous.
October 15th, 2019 at 12:09 PM ^
No shit.
Learn to read next time then asshole.
My post addressed the lack of points for OSU. Alabama is on the Michigan list as well as Florida. What does that mean -- nothing!
October 15th, 2019 at 10:18 AM ^
The
Hate
U
Give
Little
Infants
Fucks
Everyone
October 15th, 2019 at 10:10 AM ^
App. State. Clearly.
October 15th, 2019 at 3:54 PM ^
They were the downfall of the Roman Empire!
Actually, we could have a chance to rectify this in a bowl game with App St.s record and all...
October 15th, 2019 at 10:13 AM ^
Sometimes it's our "fans".
October 15th, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
Michigan. Prove me wrong.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:44 AM ^
Still osu with more than 2/3 of our total rivalry points. msu and nd are basically tied for 2nd.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:09 AM ^
I'm surprised that Notre Dame gave us as many as 24. I would have thought:
- Navy
- Boston College
- USC
- MSU
- Duke
- Purdue
- Pittsburgh
- North Carolina State
- Northwestern
- Indiana
- Georgia Tech
would have eaten up a bunch of the points.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:50 AM ^
In all sincerity I found that number a bit high as well from their fanbase.
It must be an all-time thing as we are ahead of them on the big lists.
October 15th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
Alot of Notre Dame fans are from Michigan. Those would see Michigan as a bigger rivalry. Those outaide would probably see USC as the rival
October 15th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
ND doesn't like Michigan, at all. I think that number is low if anything.
SC is their traditional rival, but they hate us more.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:14 AM ^
LOL'd this morning at these survey questions:
I will feel joy if the Ohio St football coach faces legal troubles.
I will feel joy if a player from Ohio St gets suspended for a year, even if the suspension was not completely deserved.
I will feel joy if a company that sponsors the Ohio St football team goes out of business.
I will feel joy if the Ohio St football stadium suffers damage.
I will feel joy if the Ohio St football team loses an important game (or a championship game)
October 15th, 2019 at 10:15 AM ^
Penn State's is delightful. Only teams that view them as a Rival are Pitt and Rutgers.
Rutgers views 4 teams as Rivals, and only 1 team sees them as one!
October 15th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
Maryland didn't put any points down for PSU? I guess they wanted to mimic their offense vs. PSU.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:21 AM ^
So is Staee... They give ~67 to M but M only gives them ~17.
That's some DELICIOUS disrespekt right there.
October 15th, 2019 at 11:17 AM ^
If you go to the actual website --- it lists Maryland as a member of the ACC! Rutgers is still in the American too.
So, I think the results may be a bit dated.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
Without looking, is Michigan's biggest rival the consistent decline in funding it gets from the state, causing massive tuition increases and not enough financial aid to create a DIVERSE STUDENT BODY oh boy there I went, sorry.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:22 AM ^
LOL. Typical Lions fan.
Yeah, the PI call cost the Lions only their second playoff win in 60+ years. Ha ah ha ha baw wah ha ha ha ha.
October 15th, 2019 at 10:46 AM ^
There was definitely hands to the face in that game...
GB's DB had his hand on the facemask of Hockenson before the ball got there on his dropped TD pass. No flag.