LandOf10: Iowa-Nebraska series sizzling toward rivalry status

Do you personally consider Nebraska v. Iowa a rivalry?


  • Total voters
    113
I think it's a rivalry because, until we beat them 6-7-8 years in a row, we NEED to beat them. They need to "hate" us worse than we "hate" them.

That puts them beneath us and makes them hate us. They hate us because we hold onto our 5 Natty's and 60s-00s run and we need to hate them because they've dismantled us recently.

Does it have consequence on B1G stage or bowl pickings yet? No.

But dammit, I want us to feel like beating them regularly is win + win situation. Getting torched by them makes me pissed off and I want to beat them. More than Purdue or Illinois or Indiana.

Only the Wisconsin game matters to me more at this point. Everyone we can't consistently beat needs to feel like a rival until we consistently beat them. Then they can call us a rival because we beat them all the time and THEN we can shake our heads and say "no, you're not a rival, we beat you all the time"

Until then, yeah, they are our rival.

 
I'd be happy never playing Iowa again, if it meant the end of that god-awful corporate monstrosity of a trophy and any talk of a "rivalry" that has been crammed down our throats.

Those of us who don't live near Iowa don't give a rat's a$$ about Iowa, their fans, any "rivalry," none of it.

This is fueled by the few people who live near each other, the Big Ten who wants to incorporate Nebraska into their tradition of rivalries, and the media who love to have something to talk about in the middle of a long offseason.

Screw Iowa, screw rivalries, and screw corporate-sponsored artificiality. Let the game grow and become something. Don't force it.
tell us how you really feel knapp!
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Personally, I think there is more of a rivalry between us and NW. The games have been close for the most part. However, the real rivalry should be wt us and Wisc if we could only hold up our end of the deal. It can't be a rivalry if we find ways to lose.

Until NU consistently wins, we won't be 'respected' enough to be anyone's rival. OU/NU was a rivalry because we both won. There was always something at stake. Consistently winning is more than record (we've had plenty of winning records) - it means winning the division - playing on a higher level. If we consistently lose 3 games a year by large margins, it doesn't earn respect. Yes, I'd like to see OU move into our Div but we would have to begin to play up to their level.

 
I think CU is a good comparison. It was before my time (I was too little to remember), but what I gather from reading, is that NU fans didn't care about CU when they won so many games in a row... And then CU started competing/winning. And that did not go over well.
It's really similar to the Colorado situation, but not the same. Colorado built their entire culture under McCartney around beating Nebraska. Nebraska shrugged it off until we didn't beat them three years in a row, then started taking it way more seriously.

Iowa isn't building their program around beating Nebraska. They have real rivalries against other schools. They care more about beating us than we care about beating them, and it provides them good motivation.

Nebraska has, for whatever reason, lacked motivation for a while.
You're exactly right on this, especially the bolded part. What I always wondered is how things would have went had Switzer not drug OU to the basement with NCAA probation and sanctions. McCartney did put a bulls eye on us because we were the best in the conference. However, he may very well have placed it on OU had they been up to the standard they were prior to their troubles. The CU/NU game may not have really ever amounted to anything more than the NU/Iowa State game had OU still been on top.

 
Just going by what's been shown on the field to date, I would say that Michigan State has been our best rivalry in the B1G. It's been an entertaining series - crazy comebacks, big upsets, and heartbreaks. Too bad they're not in the same division as we are.

Sam's point about Nebraska not accepting rivalries that are "beneath" them is a bit misguided. It's that Nebraska fans don't accept rivalries, with one exception, at all.
I don't think it's the case that Nebraska fans won't accept anyone not named Oklahoma as a rival. Remember how when we first joined the Big Ten, we had Penn State as a protected cross-division opponent? Quick survey: how many of you would rather have Penn State as the annual regular season-ending matchup, and how many would rather stick with Iowa? And does anyone think that the game would ever be stuck on Fox Sports 1 if it were against Penn State?

 
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"It's that Nebraska fans don't accept rivalries, with one exception, at all."

Yeah...because we think all the others are beneath us
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Was anyone at the railyard prior to the Oregon game this year? Remember the amount of cheering that was going on when Iowa lost to NDSU? How the hell can you not consider this a rivalry when our fans were so elated about that win.

Personally, I think Iowa is a rivalry and should be one.

 
Was anyone at the railyard prior to the Oregon game this year? Remember the amount of cheering that was going on when Iowa lost to NDSU? How the hell can you not consider this a rivalry when our fans were so elated about that win.

Personally, I think Iowa is a rivalry and should be one.
I was not at the Railyard but I was in Memorial with a bunch of people watching from there.

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Was anyone at the railyard prior to the Oregon game this year? Remember the amount of cheering that was going on when Iowa lost to NDSU? How the hell can you not consider this a rivalry when our fans were so elated about that win.

Personally, I think Iowa is a rivalry and should be one.

Yep. Same thing when they were announced as a play-in seed the year we made the NCAA Tourney. Everyone at Pinnacle started cheering and jeering quite a lot.

 
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