Iowa feels like a forced rivalry. Kind of like Colorado.
To me Oklahoma was THE rivalry before the Big 12 ruined a good thing.
It's easy to blame the Big XII, but Oklahoma was glad to forsake our rivalry and keep theirs with Texas, so you might be over-romanticizing that relationship just a tad.
I'm also of the opinion that people are trying to force Iowa
not to be a rival moreso than the other way around. Sure there's the stupid trophy nonsense, but we have one of those with Wisconsin as well and a lot of people seem to think Wisconsin is now our main rival, so the trophy can't be the reason for the alleged 'forced' nature of the thing.
I couldn't care any less if individual joe schmo does or doesn't think it's a rivalry. But what's so goofy is Nebraska fan's collective insistence that it isn't and it can't be. Are we so obsessed with being the nicest fanbase that we're afraid to embrace petty hate? :lol: Whether or not it's a rivalry depends on your definition of the word. Some people think rivalries are built on equal competitiveness. Some think they're built on long history. Some think they're built on pure unadulterated hate. None of those answers are any more right or wrong than the others. For every NU/OU rivalry there's a Clemson/SCAR rivalry, and for every Bama/Auburn there's an Oklahoma/Oklahoma State.
It's clear that our fanbases have a unique sort of disdain for each other, and it's clear that they've kicked our a$$ over the last handful of years and we're especially pissed about it because we think we're better than them. Seems like if you took the same scenario, applied it to teams playing for another extra decade or two and change the names, everyone would of course consider it a rivalry. So it is a rivalry right now? I don't know, I don't care, I just want to f#&%ing beat Iowa.