denardogasm

November 1st, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^

"Michigan leads the series 69–23–2."

Lol.  I think that pretty much wipes out the possibility of a rivalry right there.  Also I had no idea Illinois had won any national championships.  Seems like I would know that about a rival.  

The page did make me take notice of the fact that we both have pretty crappy bowl records, and made me think about the Big Ten overall in bowl games.  Is there a diary out there somewhere about home-field advantage in bowl games all time?  (Meaning the team less than 1000 miles from home, which is never the Big Ten).

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Wolverine Devotee

November 1st, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^

Michigan is 35-5-2 in the last 42 meetings. 

lol

I could entertain the idea if it was a Basketball page, as the series record is getting really tight due to Michigan winning every year and beating them by embarrassing them, but Football?

 

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rob f

November 1st, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^

but there's also Bo's wrathful beatdown of the Illini following their firing of Gary Moeller (already mentioned above), and even bigger, Illini fans blamed Bo for blowing the whistle on their head coach Mike White and his shady practices. 

The Illini became suddenly powerful in the mid 80's under White, but they flamed out when the program got punished for their violations and lost a pile of scholarships.  I don't know what role Bo had in the demise of White, but the bottom line is that White was doing the cheating, not Bo.

30 years after those three events, Illini fans haven't gotten over it.

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Bocheezu

November 2nd, 2015 at 10:51 AM ^

Had a friend that went to Illinois at the time, and he told me about how excited people were about the football team that year, how the stadium was packed full, how their program was on the up and up, and that single event completely destroyed everything for their entire future forever and ever.  They are like Cubs fans with Bartman, it's pathetic.

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Bando Calrissian

November 1st, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^

They don't have a natural rival. And they really don't like us. Ergo... They think it's a thing.

Shit, I remember going to Champaign for the game in '04, and the cover of the student newspaper was a ring of all the B1G team logos with the headline "Who is our rival?" I kid you not.

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doggdetroit

November 1st, 2015 at 11:20 PM ^

They may be in the same state but it's not really a rivalry. Illinois is a huge public school with the majority of its student body coming from Illinois. Northwestern is a smaller private school with the majority of its student body coming from outside Illinois. They aren't really peers of each other academically or athletically.

I would imagine the Northwestern - llinois rivalry to be equivalent to Tennessee - Vanderbilt.

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AmayzNblue

November 1st, 2015 at 11:36 PM ^

True....except Illinois has never been near Tennessee's level and Northwestern is much better than Vanderbilt in football. Illinois-NW is their biggest rivalry but I think Illinois fan base realizes that puts them in a much lower tier than UM, OSU, Neb, and PSU



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HailChicago

November 2nd, 2015 at 12:34 AM ^

When both schools haven't been very relevant or successful at football ever, let alone at the same time, it's been hard for the rivalry to build. Recent years have presented opportunities, especially with NU being better than they ever have been (being avg lately even is a huge upgrade), but until they are both actual contenders, it's not possible.

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Brendan71388

November 1st, 2015 at 10:40 PM ^

Grew up in Chicago and I've been to a few games at Illinois (One, I learned several years later, was Aaron Rodgers first start for Cal).

Illinois fans were the first I ever saw wearing "Ann Arbor is a whore" or "Muck Fichigan" shirts. They really, really hate us. It's pretty entertaining.

Sadly, the last UM game I went to was the Illinois game in RichRod's first year. A buddy was on their team and got me tickets, in the Illinois section unfortunately. They killed us.



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LSAClassOf2000

November 1st, 2015 at 11:26 PM ^

It wasn't that much later that Zook would find himself punting from Indiana's 30 in 2011, which of course is the seasons where Illinois decided it had seen enough of the man who would punt when you least expected it. Such was his time at Illinois, especially towards the end of his seven year tenure. 

In retrospect, maybe losing a shootout like that was something he took as sign that special teams felt neglected and they should get reps despite having advantageous field position. 

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Romulan Commander

November 2nd, 2015 at 9:15 AM ^

and I can tell you that the t-shirt shop printing Creepy Racist Mascot shirts is also the source of the Muck Fichigan/ Ann Arbor is a Whore shirts, too. The "rivalry" notion is strongest in the Greek community and embittered locals who never got over losing the aforementioned creepy mascot.  Most University staff and academics chuckle when the topic of a rivalry comes up. A huge percentage of students here are international and really don't give a hoot.

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