Feldman's "Should Be" College Football Rivalries
Bruce Feldman made a list of the Top 10 rivalries he'd like to see in College Football. This is another example of the media attempting to create rivalries, but it's hypothetical so it's ok.
You have to be an insider to see the whole top 10, but #1 is Boise St. vs Alabama, and Big Ten schools on the list are: Ohio State vs. Oklahoma, Penn State vs. Pitt, and LSU vs. Michigan.
Having these games would be crazy fun. I'd love to have a series with LSU or another traditional powerhouse outside the Big Ten (besides the Alabama game in '12).
Anyways, here's what Feldman had to say about LSU-Michigan:
LSU-Michigan:
After years of rumors that LSU coach Les Miles, a former Wolverines lineman and Bo Schembechler disciple, would return to Ann Arbor to rescue his alma mater, we now know that he's not leaving Tiger Stadium for the Maize and Blue. Of course, it would be fun if he and his program visited Michigan every other year. Any time one of Jim Delany's prized programs takes on one of Mike Slive's, you're going to end up with a lot of compelling drama.
So, are there any rivalries that you would like to see? Any big opponent that would be fun for Michigan to play, or another series to watch? I think it'd be a lot of fun playing a home and home with Boise (even though State's doing that, which makes it lame) or a California team like USC or Stanford.
Your thoughts?
The []_[]
I'd like to see a home-and-home with Texas. Two of the most storied programs. #1 and 2 in all time wins. And the only time they've ever played against each other was that epic (albeit very sad) Rose Bowl.
Also, I live in Austin and want Michigan to play here.
Side note: I saw the Big10 games listed on Rittenberg's blog. The logos said PSU v. Alabama, but the description was PSU v. Pitt. Does the insider article say Bama or Pitt?
That's a good catch, my mistake. I just saw the logos on the Blog too, and in his additional series he'd like to see, he listed Penn St - Alabama. My bad.
I saw Bama vs Boise State and PSU vs Pitt
That's an obvious choice and one that I missed in my own long list.
That Rose Bowl was awesome playing them and some games with UT would help our recruiting down there.
Michigan State & Central Michigan
We at Central already view this as a rivalry. I mean they've only won 4 of 7 against us all-time, Seems like a pretty even series to me.
Michigan vs Virginia Tech would be awesome.
It would be, although Michigan would probably win most of those games due to VT's "choke" tendencies lol
And this is coming from a VT alumnus
That would be a good series though
HAHAHA! good point. Besides Michigan would win and then VT will go on a 8 games win streak! Perfect.
I'd love M-VT. I grew up a VT fan and a ton of my friends are students/alumni. It'd be an interesting match-up at the very least
10. South Florida Bulls vs. UCF Knights
Huh? Who would care about this?
When you get a city with Mickey Mouse against a city where drug dealers bet on Pop Warner games, big things will happen.
Those are good OOC matchups. Schools should be encouraged to play more OOC games instead of scheduling cupcakes. Everyone wins, the fans, the media, and the players.
Everyone wins, the fans, the media, and the players.
Except for the team that loses. They lose.
/s
I wish more big OOC games were scheduled.
Boise State vs. Alabama at #1? I don't get that. I like Oklahoma vs. Ohio State.
- - -
Would anyone like to see these?
* Michigan vs. Cal: two universities in the Public Ivy class, two famous college towns (with significant differences, admittedly)
* Michigan vs. Virginia: see Michigan vs. Cal
* Michigan vs. Washington / UCLA: no college-town action, but still similar schools
* Michigan State vs. Washington State: two historical little brothers ... how cute
* Northwestern vs. Duke: has happened, I think
* Northwestern vs. Stanford / Vanderbilt: academic flagships, etc.
* Ohio State vs. LSU: big-time football, big-time cheating, only games in town statewide
* Penn State vs. Pitt: I think they should play every year.
* Penn State vs. Maryland / Syracuse / Rutgers
* Indiana vs. Kentucky: see NW vs. Duke
* Purdue vs. Georgia Tech: engineering schools
* Wisconsin vs. Cal
Northwestern-Stanford is happening soon.. 2014? A home and home.. That should be pretty fun. It just seems right that those two play
Indiana vs Kentucky does happen once in a while.
edit. They have played 30+ times in the schools history.
They used to play for the Bourbon Barrel, but don't think it's been played for a while. (I think the bourbon barrel was retired as well, after a drunk driving incident iirc)
I like purdue vs. Va tech. Two engineering schools that tend to be in the shadow of larger public universities (iu for purdue and UVA for va tech). Both schools have a history of choking.
"Big time-football, big-time cheating."
props
That used to happen quite a bit. Not since we abandoned going out there in 2003. Something about going out West for a guaranteed L lost it's luster.
And I believe Rutgers used to be part of Penn State's annual beatdown tour before they joined a conference and had to play real teams.
I would love to see Michigan vs. Tennessee. I kinda like Rocky Top, so to have that and The Victors in the same stadium would be awesome.
Michigan-West Virigina.
This could be one of our new trophy games. The fanbase of the winning team gets the privilege of trashing RR for the entire year, while the other fanbase cannot.
(note for those without a sense of humor: NOT intented as a shot at RR, WVU or us - just making fun of two fanbases that have factions both share an irrational personal hatred of the guy).
I wouldn't call a "faction" of WVU's fanbase irrational, I can assure you that it's the whole lot of them.
While I'm on that note I need to reply to the poster above and say that Pitt and PSU need to resume their rivalry.
The problem with Feldman's article is that he doesn't seem to understand the difference between a "rivalry" and a "cool match-up."
If you look at most of the great rivalries in college FB, they are based upon a lot more than "man it would be cool if these two teams, that have some remote and potentially temporary link (us and LSU) would play each other for a fre years. True rivals generally develop from a shared history of competition. Michigan-OSU, for example, is a great rivalry because the two teams are geographically close, compete annually for the same recruits and have a rich history of battling head-to-head for conference championships. That rivalry developed over decades. The same can be said for Alabama-Auburn, Michigan-ND and most of the other great cfb rivalries.
Then there are the "lesser rivalries" such as M-MSU. Controversial statement: While I hate MSU more than any team other than OSU, I don't consider them to be a true rival. They are our closest in-state competition, but barring the past few years, they are generally not much competition on either recruting trail or on the field. For those fans living in-state, this is a huge rivalry because you have to deal with the insane Sparties out there in a daily basis, but most out of state M fans don't regard MSU as as much of a rival as OSU and, for many, ND.
Most of the rivalries that Feldman proposes are not even in the category of a "lesser rivalry." They are just games that would be cool to watch over the next few years.
That's exactly why I tried to have a little disclaimer at the beginning - I completely agree. it's like the Big Ten trying to force rivalries. Rivalries have to evolve, the media can't just say that two teams are rivals and expect that to change anything. I do enjoy making a list of "cool games to see" though.
And as far as your point about MSU - Michigan, that's also very true. I absolutely despise everything about OSU and MSU, but I hate OSU in a respectful kind of way. They're a good team and a good program, and actually not that bad of a school, so I respect them (that all may be changed with this whole cheating thing... but that's a different story). For MSU, I don't respect them at all. That goes to the whole "Little Brother" thing. They're just annoying. They're not good, they're not a good school, and they're not respected. That's why the true rival is OSU, and we just humor MSU.
You explained the difference between OSU and MSU way better than I did.
As to the original post, very cool topic. It is fun to think of cool match-ups.
I have been wanting us to play Nebraska for years (not in a bowl). This has actual rivalry potential because, aside from geographic proximity and recruiting footprint overlap, the whole 1997 NC thing is still discussed. Now that they are joining the B10, we will play them regularly, which may help develop this into a rivalry over tie.
Regarding UM-Nebraska, don't forget about the Alamo Bowl debacle.
I mentioned this in the comments to the Lacrosse announcement, but this whole movement towards manufactured "rivalries" has definitely gotten out of control. During conference realignment, it seemed like every team was "creating" rivalries out of the blue. Almost rendered the word meaningless, and the trend still continues.
I think U of M vs. West Virginia would be great, not because of RR but because they will probably become the most prolific passing offense of any BCS conference team in the next few years and it would be fun to gauge our pass defense against them
Not really a rivalry. This is more of a "it would be cool to play these guys for the next few years" game. But, that said, I would love to see how our 2013-15 pass defense can match up to a team like this.
OSU and Auburn seems like a natural.
Notre Dame vs Florida would be fun too.
I like UM vs LSU even though I don't like the idea of early season games down south. Hot and humid is not good football weather. Pitt might make a good rival nowadays. VT or UNC sound good too. No more west coast games please.
MSU and FCS South from NCAA 2010
We still have a losing record against them (6-12)...we need to even the score there.
Army
Appalachian State (need to fix that one too)
Mississippi State
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Texas
Tennessee
Toledo (needs fixing)
I think it is beat to leave that in the past. Could you imagine the media-bs that we would deal with leading up to that game. The Horror would be shown on ESPN almost daily.
It is right along the lines of this article that Nebraska coming to the Big Ten is so cool. We are about to begin an epic rivalry with a truly worthy opponent in Nebraska. The net result will be to elevate our game and provide some great football. I agree with others about how cool a home-away UM-Texas series would be or even UM-Cal. But Nebraska is a pretty storied program and we are now going to get them every year. Tremendous!
Sorry for getting the title backwards above!
Pardon the slight thread-jacking:
What I'd really love to see, is a special Saturday non-conference Cross-Conference Challenge®
The Big10 (now 12) has an equal number of teams as the SEC.
Lets have a matchup; it would most certainly be a bit ugly for the B10, but who knows?
Michigan - - - LSU
OSU - - - Alabama
Nebraska - - - Auburn
Penn State - - - Florida
MSU - - - MSU
Wisconsin - - - Arkansas
Iowa - - - Tennessee
Illinois - - - South Carolina
Minnesota - - - Georgia
Indiana - - - Kentucky
Purdue - - - Mississippi
Northwestern - - - Vanderbilt
Would you re-order them?
What other match-ups conferences would you like to see?
I have always agreed that it would be amazing to have one week where it's an SEC-B1G challenge, like the ACC challenge in basketball.
As far as your order is concerned, I would actually probably swtich Michigan and Wisconsin. I'd love to play LSU, but competitively, I think Wisconsin - LSU and Michigan - Arkansas are better games.
It'd be a very intense weekend, but it could possibly be pretty ugly for the Big Ten
I love this idea, as long as the B1G teams get the home portion of the games played in late November. I bet the SEC teams would all choke playing in cold weather.
Assuming both sides of the matchup were "healthy" (i.e. Michigan is Michigan, Georgia is Georgia, etc.) then the first 4 games would be extremely compelling. Georgia vs. Minnesota would be a massacre though. I would swap Wisconsin and Minnesota at the very least.
based on record from the previous year, but I like it, it's an awesome idea.
Ohio State vs. Auburn
Wisconsin vs. LSU
MSU vs. Arkansas
Nebraska vs. Alabama
Iowa vs. MSU
Illinois vs. South Carolina
Penn State vs. Florida
Michigan vs. Georgia
Northwestern vs. Tennessee
Purdue vs. Kentucky
Minnesota vs. Ole Miss
Indiana vs. Vanderbilt
I think the Big Ten might get handled in a year like this with Michigan and Penn State both down a bit, but it would be a fantastic weekend of college football.
Iowa - Georgia
Ill - MSU
MSU - Tenn
Minn - SC
I'd like to see more revenge matchups for us. I would like to see us get another shot at App and Missippis State, and ground them into dust. That would bother me for the rest of my days knowing that they could hang those victories above our heads. It would have been fun to see a RR led Michigan team ( with great defense and special teams of course) take on Oregon.
Speaking of the Ducks, I would like to see a rivarly develop between them and Boise St. They are both fun to watch, and they have the Blount incident as a backstory.
I think it would be sweet to see rejuvenated USC, Michigan, and Texas teams have home and homes with each other, or play each other at the Rose Bowl.
I wish we had a home and home rivalry with an SEC team every year. I like LSU or BAMA. I think U would also make it great rivalry. The tradition BAMA has and MICHIGAN has is something special.
As soon as we create a ranking system that provides greater rewards for having a tough schedule and greater punishments for those that have weak schedules, we just aren't going to see many of these high profile games.
If you are a top team, there's no incentive to play other top teams - the loser is most likely out of the title race and possibly out of the BCS. It's amazing to me that we do not have a ranking system (or playoff system, whatever gets it done) that incentivizes scheduling high profile games. It's better for the game, the fans, the schools, the networks, the sponsors and anyone else with a financial interest in cfb.