Obligatory "Is Iowa a Rival" Thread

Is Iowa a Rivalry for Nebraska?

  • Total voters
    193
No and they never will be. Iowa is what Missouri used to be. A team we played for a trophy noone cared about that just irritates us but is not ever going to be a real threat nationally.

Wisconsin is our new Colorado. A rowdy fanbase who's program has tasted some national success but has yet to prove it can take that big step up.

We don't have a rival right now. It was starting to be Penn State till the conference screwed up the scheduling system last expansion. My guess is that when expansion happens again in a few years we will see a Rival for Nebraska emerge. But right now it isn't there.

FWIW:

Northwestern is a more likable ksu. Guess we always have do deal with the purple kitties in some form.

Illinois is ISU with less condiments.

Purdue is Kansas and they are currently in their Mangino stage until Brohm leaves.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I will say this again, other than Illinois, Rutgers and Indiana who we have beaten consistently throughout the past six years, the rest of the BIG are our rivals. We have not beaten Iowa in a few years now and they ripped us a new one last time. So, how can we say they are our rivals. I hope we beat them now in their own turf so they can start seeing us a ligitimate threat. Saying this and doing it is not the same thing. We must have the game of the year if we are to beat IOWA at their own backyard on senior day. They have a good defense and a much better QB than Michigan State. 

A true rival is one that keeps you from achieveing your season goal. If we had beaten IOWA last year, we would have accomplished that. Until we start doing that to opponents, we might as well approach each game as a rival if that makes us more motivated to win.

 
We were pulling into our hotel in Iowa City and the first person wearing a hawkeyes shirt we saw flipped us off.  He was walking across the parking lot to Old Chicago. 

AWESOME!!!

 
Glass said:
Off topic: Who are the announcers for the Nebraska high school football championships on Neb Public TV? They are terrific. I looked everywhere to find their names.That No. 23 for Scottsbluff is a beast. So is Epperson for Skutt, to mention a few notables. 
Click to expand...


Larry Putney and Damon Benning.

 
You are not a true rival until the vote hits 85%. Then it is just that bottom part of the bell curve like the knuckle draggers and mouth breathers.  

 
huskerfan74 said:
I will say this again, other than Illinois, Rutgers and Indiana who we have beaten consistently throughout the past six years, the rest of the BIG are our rivals. We have not beaten Iowa in a few years now and they ripped us a new one last time. So, how can we say they are our rivals. I hope we beat them now in their own turf so they can start seeing us a ligitimate threat. Saying this and doing it is not the same thing. We must have the game of the year if we are to beat IOWA at their own backyard on senior day. They have a good defense and a much better QB than Michigan State. 

A true rival is one that keeps you from achieveing your season goal. If we had beaten IOWA last year, we would have accomplished that. Until we start doing that to opponents, we might as well approach each game as a rival if that makes us more motivated to win.
Click to expand...
sounds ligit.

 
knapplc said:
I don't understand Nebraska's obsession with having a "rival."

We don't need a rival. Every team does not have a rival. Rivalries are something that develop over time, organically. That is not what's happening here. And it sucks.

The main reason this Iowa "rivalry" talk happens every year is because the major news outlets that cover Nebraska football have a huge footprint in Iowa. A huge, HUGE chunk of their audience roots for Iowa, and they have to sell stories to that audience. So they stoke this fire that burns not-so-brightly for most Husker fans to further their own ends. And most fans aren't discerning enough to grasp that, so they just blithely follow along.  

To understand why Iowa may or may not be a rival, we need to understand who and what we think Nebraska is.

Nebraska is a team that has won five national championships in the modern era.  We have two legendary coaches, hall-of-famers, who have won multiple national championships each, both in the last 50 years. We have three Heisman Trophy winners in that span. I don't even know how many conference championships. Or divisional championships. A lot, each. Nebraska is one of the top five winningest programs in college football. Ever. We are a Baron of the sport. A pillar.

None of the above is an exaggeration. None is hyperbole.

So let's understand who and what Iowa is.  Until 2011, we didn't play them regularly. In the modern era (1965-present) Iowa has been a perennial mid-tier team in the Big Ten. They have no national championships to their name. They have no Heisman Trophy winners. They have no coaches that Nebraska would rather have. They are not in a more enviable position than Nebraska, unless you count the worst period of contemporary Nebraska football, in which Iowa has a better record.

But there's a problem with that metric. Because that is not how Nebraska Fan measures themselves or their team. If you want to claim Iowa as a true rival, you have to accept that what Iowa is or has is what Nebraska wants, or wants to be.

And that is decidedly not the case. And it has not been the case since Nebraska joined the Big Ten, or even before that.

And anyone making the claim that Nebraska aspires to be what Iowa is fundamentally is lying to themselves. Because we endeavor to be regularly relevant on the national stage, frequently compete for the conference title, and occasionally compete for a national championship.

If you claim that's not what Nebraska Football is, or wants to be, you're lying to yourself. 

And when you acquiesce to that concept, you cannot claim that Iowa is our rival. Because they are not that, they are not Nebraska's barrier to that, and they never have been that. Ever.

Iowa is no more Nebraska's rival than Minnesota. Or Northwestern. Or Wisconsin.

Iowa may be *a* rival. And that's fine. They're in our division, we play every year, we want to beat them.

But they are not *our* rival. They are not the hurdle we must overcome to achieve our goals. They're just another hurdle.

Finally - and sadly, for those who think Iowa is our rival - Iowa does not consider us to be their rival. They never have. They dislike us, they want to beat us, and they have disdain for us. But that is not a special or unique thing for Iowa Fan. They feel the same way about Wisconsin and Minnesota, and far moreso toward them than toward us.

This rivalry talk is dumb and cheap. It is not reciprocated, and it is forced and inorganic.

It is no different than when Dan McCarney decided on a whim that Nebraska was Colorado's rival in the 1980s.

Nebraska Fan disdained that designation. It was laughable.

And now we want to be Colorado, and make that same claim?

Ugh. No.

For god's sake, let's have more dignity than that.
Click to expand...
Well said knapplic… It's like you were reading my mind...Scary 

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top