Who's your fourth biggest rival?
If you could only beat 4 teams year-in year-out... who's the Fourth?
Considering almost everyone on this board would rate OSU, MSU, and ND as their #1-#3 rival (in no particular order as to not ignite another who is or should be UM's biggest rival debate)... who is your #4 biggest rival? Why?
I assume geography will decide most answers, or maybe personal experiences (a terrible loss that still haunts, or a terrible roomate who can't stop bragging about Purdue's Big 10 championship with Drew Brees, etc.)
My answer: given I live and work in Chicago surrounded by Illini turn into huge football fans once every 10 years after they beat us... and because I can't stand my brother-in-law who lies about where he graduated (flunked out of Illinois - claims he's alum)... the Illini are my no. 4 most hated rival
Yours...
Penn State.
Excellent. Penn State can go fuck themselves. I live in PA and constantly have to hear about how great they are.
Yes, I hold grudges.
Good point...remember the Alamo!
screw the alamo, remember '97
August 1st, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^
while the Alamo bowl sucked, I was alluding to '97.
penn state, no question
unless we started playing usc or florida regularly
wisconsin. they had a melee when they beat us in 94.
Directional Michigan U - I hate those bastards, taking away the in-state recruits.
Seriously Penn State.
Penn State
Or anytime we play somebody from the SEC.
Minne$ota. Too much tradition with the LOLphers. My number 5 is Illinoize and #6 is USC.
nothing like keeping the Jug.
It's got to be either Illinois, Penn State, or Wisconsin.
I think you rule out Illinois unless you're from the state or live in the state, as we typically handle them and their program pre-Zook was pretty much a joke (except for that B10 title early this decade).
So PSU or Wiscy? I'll go with Wiscy because we always seem to have close games with them regardless of how good the teams are (last year, obviously - but remember our run at perfection in 2006? They were our closest victory). Also their fans are NUTS.
We still kicked their ass in that B10 title year. They won the title because of the combination of Spartan Bob and a putrid first half performance against OSU that year.
I live in Chicago, know tons of Illinois people and would still put Wisconsin and PSU above Illinois. I think Wisconsin probably is 4th because until last year, PSU simply couldn't beat us. I imagine soon enough PSU will take its rightful spot in the 4 slot though.
Hell, I'd put Iowa above Illinois. Minnesota too, due to the Jug.
Any of those three could be the #4 but ima have to go with PSU Joe Paterno alone makes this a very huge rivalry because of his legendary status as a coach I respect him but beating just feels so good!!
UConn
Woof woof.
But for real it must be Penn State.
and Minnesota (maybe U. of Chicago) in the first half of the program's existence.
In the first half of the list was
1. Chicago
2. Minnesota
3. Ohio State
4. Michigan State
Cornell? We're something like 6-12 against them.
Penn? 11-8-2 against them.
Yes, the Ivies have a place but they weren't annual opponents like the others. Chicago we played on Thanksgiving day as our finale each season. It was our win over them that inspired the writing of The Victors.
As far as tough competition back then, for Michigan, it was Chicago, Minnesota and the Ivies.
I have argued in the past, if Notre Dame wont join the Big Ten, then I'd just as soon have Chicago back (yeah, they'd need financial help from the conference to pull it off, but they boost in academic reputation to the conference would be like what Duke does for the ACC) than anyone else like Pitt or Syracuse. Besides, you can't have a conference built entirely out of heavy-weights (UM, OSU, PSU). Someone has to lose; might as well be the Maroons.
I know it's unlikely to happen, but if it did what kind of attendance could they get at Soldier Field?
has no bearing on reality whatsoever.
It is fun to think about because, other than that small problematic thing of not having viable athletic programs, they'd be a great fit geographically and academically.
With all of the UM alumni in the area, I think the game would have very good attendance in Chicago. I also suspect that, give the central location of Chicago, they would draw well for all Big Ten schools.
There are 13 teams that Michigan has a losing record against and Cornell is one of them. Here are the others. They must be destroyed.
App State (0-1)
Arizona State (0-1)
Army (4-5)
BYU (0-1)
North Carolina (1-2)
Oklahoma (0-1)
USC (4-6)
Stevens (0-1)
Tennessee (0-1)
Texas (0-1)
Toledo (0-1)
Wesleyan (0-1)
We'd have to schedule them a lot to get over .500.
USC at 4-6; we might well quit there while we're behind. Don't want to make matters worse.
Can you help me find the other games? I am working on a project for someone and this is what I have.
11/8/1952 vs.Cornell (2-7) W 49-7
11/10/1951 @ Cornell (6-3) L 7-20
10/14/1933 vs. Cornell (4-3) W 40-0
11/10/1917 vs. Cornell (3-6)W 42-0
11/11/1916 @ Cornell (6-2)L 20-23
11/6/1915 vs. Cornell (9-0)L 7-34
11/14/1914 vs. Cornell (8-2)L 13-28
11/8/1913 @ Cornell (5-4-1)W 17-0
11/16/1912 vs. Cornell (3-7)W 20-7
11/11/1911 @ Cornell (7-3)L 0-6
11/3/1894 @ Cornell (6-4-1)L 0-22
11/24/1894 vs. Cornell (6-4-1)W 12-4
11/8/1892 @ Cornell (10-1)L 0-44
11/22/1892 vs. Cornell (10-1)L 10-30
Man, they OWNED us in '92.
regardless of year.
I'd love to have been at those asswhoopings in '17 and '33. Though that would make me dead...
year. The ones that are not in your list:
November 23, 1889: Cornell, 56-0 (OUCH!!!!) @ Buffalo, NY (huh?)
November 15, 1890: Cornell, 20-5 @ Detroit
November 21, 1891: Cornell, 58-12 @Detroit
November 28, 1891: Cornell, 10-0 @Chicago
FYI
The Nov. 22, 1892 game was in Detroit
The Nov. 24, 1894 game was at the D.A.C Park in Detroit
Interesting to Note:
In the cases when Michigan played Cornell twice in the same year, Michigan lost the 1st game and played much, much better (according to score) in the second.
6-12 I am feeling jabberwock's Cornell angst.
you stole my Cornell angst.
didn't I recently have a post about this?
yes I did.
http://mgoblog.com/content/part-ot-uscs-unspectacular-home-schedule2010…
In the first half, #4 would have to be Michigan Agricultural College.
It wasn't until 1955 that the State of Michigan renamed MAC as Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science. In 1964 they dropped the "of Agriculture and Applied Science."
Penn State.
Hm, perhaps this was inspired by my thread?
It would come down to Penn State, Wisconsin, or Minnesota. I'd have to say Wisconsin because it's been even in the past set of football games and they've been essentially a slightly inferior version of Michigan in recent history (except 2008). Both football and academics showed some strong similarities to Carr-era Michigan.
Penn State would be 4th if they managed to win more often.
Minnesota brings to mind the Brown Jug, but their lackluster competition in modern history drops them down. If they won last year, I'd give them more consideration.
why haven't you considered Iowa? They were one hell of a rival during the Fry days, and still give us fits, particularly in Iowa City.
... credit where credit is due.
The question was who is MY fourth biggest rival, not Michigan's, so:
1. Decency
2. Pants
3. Germans
4. High fructose corn syrup
overall record versus pants?
HFCS. Slowly killing you. I know you can get sugar-licious Mexican Coke in most Kroger locations in Metro Detroit, perhaps check the ones in Washtenaw, in the international aisle.
I've never had any luck. Pepsi has a new "throwback" version w/ natural sugar though, but I'm a coke guy.
Just epinion.
I would have pants higher up.
And any man who is honest would have women at #1. There is nothing more deletorius to a happy, settled life than women. They are out biggest rivals and have been driving us crazy ever since the "Apple Incident."
Minnesota, historically.
With all respect, anyone who rates MSU ahead of either Ohio State or Notre Dame must live in Michigan and have obnoxious family/co-workers that root for State. There is no other reason to irrationally put a historically insignificant opponent (comparatively speaking) on par with OSU or ND.
I vote Penn State #4, simply because they're a great program. But there is not much a rivalry built up there...
The vast, vast majority of Michigan fans and alumni are from the state of Michigan... so you can see how they might have this crazy idea that Michigan State is a bigger rival then a team we've played on and off for about 30 years like Notre Dame.
I don't have the numbers in front of me, but when I enrolled in 2002, wasn't the out-of-state % something around 30%? I wouldn't call 70% "vast" - more like "strong majority".
Then you could make the argument that all the people that leave Michigan after graduation (a majority I'd think) would lose some intensity for the MSU rivalry as MSU fans don't travel as well.
Just a thought I had.
Yes, it's settled somewhere between 65% and 70% I believe. But in the past it's been much high, and considering our number of living alumni I think it's safe to say a majority are from Michigan. When you start adding in fans with no affiliation with the university, that number jumps even higher.
The second point is fair, but I think there are probably just as many who still hate Sparty as who lose their interest in the game.
Agreed. Anyone who wants to rank OSU/MSU/ND is going to do so on their own experiences. I will say that since my first year was 2002 (the year we started playing ND annually) and I'm from out-of-state, I rank ND higher on my "hate" list than MSU.
However, there is no doubt that the atmosphere of the MSU game at Michigan Stadium is more intense than the ND game. MSU simply puts a lot more fans into AA on game day and thus the scene is much more ridiculous.