Obligatory "Is Iowa a Rival" Thread

Is Iowa a Rivalry for Nebraska?

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    193
Hilltop said:
The sad reality I have come to is we don't really have a current rival.  We have a few teams some fans care a little more about but nobody on our schedule gets the blood boiling.  Hopefully some day soon that changes.
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I think the closest we've come to a rivalry series since 2011 has been Northwestern, at least as far as the scoreboard goes.

Minnesota is close, with the added fun/silliness of The Chair.

Iowa would be a natural rivalry with the border, but a rivalry benefits from competitiveness, and they've beaten us five straight. Same with Wisconsin - we haven't beaten them since 2011.

There's some potential for rivalries. But mostly the failure to build anything like it has come from our end.

 
knapplc said:
I think the closest we've come to a rivalry series since 2011 has been Northwestern, at least as far as the scoreboard goes.

Minnesota is close, with the added fun/silliness of The Chair.

Iowa would be a natural rivalry with the border, but a rivalry benefits from competitiveness, and they've beaten us five straight. Same with Wisconsin - we haven't beaten them since 2011.

There's some potential for rivalries. But mostly the failure to build anything like it has come from our end.
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2012* When we wore the all reds 

 
Hayseed said:
Wisconsin is our rival in this league. I'm not sure why anybody thinks Iowa would be other than location.
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Candidly, Wisconsin is not your rival and it has nothing to do with H2H results.  Posted in another thread several months ago, so I'll copy and paste below...

Without meaning any sort of disrespect to games between Nebraska/Wisconsin, I don't think you'll find many Wisconsin fans that consider Nebraska a rival - most say Iowa and Minnesota.  However, a larger-percentage consider Minnesota the primary rival and it extends beyond football, and athletics, in general.  Few examples below:

  • Tuition reciprocity allows for HS students in each state to attend Minnesota and Wisconsin at the cost of an in-state student.  Kids, naturally, want to get away and this one way of doing so.  For as many kids within each state going to their flagship university, many of their peers will cross state lines for university.
  • Folks from each state find work in the other state after college in the major metropolitan areas (i.e. Minneapolis / St. Paul, Madison, Milwaukee).
  • Both states have strong German and Scandinavian roots.
  • Both states are similar in culture (i.e. recreation in the North Woods, access to 10,000+ lakes, etc.).
  • The two states border each other, almost entirely, north/south.  Plenty of crossover between the two states with residents working in the other (i.e. commuting from Hudson to MSP, Winona <-> La Crosse, etc).
  • Minnesota and Wisconsin sports, not including CFB, are more-closely tied when you consider strong college hockey traditions (both men and women) and Packers/Vikings.

The rivalry between the two schools, for as lopsided as its been in football, is about as natural as it gets.

 
badgers007 said:
Candidly, Wisconsin is not your rival and it has nothing to do with H2H results.  Posted in another thread several months ago, so I'll copy and paste below...
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The rivalry with Minnesota in all things became apparent when two game players (board games, mostly war games) that came to my house to play were from Wisconsin and hated everything related to Minnesota. One even named his daughter Madison, which was acceptable to the wife (now ex-wife) and she learned later why (the city).  They were quite the cheeseheads. 

They even make pains to protect the BB Wisconsin while playing WW2 games; and of course any other Japanese players will try to sink it first for morale purposes (despite carriers being the prime target most of the time).  :D  

 
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Just because a fanbase hates another team does not make them our rival.  We hated Colorado and Missouri back in the BIG 8 & 12 days....did we ever consider them to be our rivals?  We don't have a rival right now.  Wisconsin might qualify if we could actually beat them. 

 
I was on the phone with a life insurance guy out of Iowa and he saw my e-mail and he said “ Can I get you to say Go Hawks?” I slightly vomited in my mouth then said “No. But I’ll give you a GBR!” He laughed and said thank you for the time 

 
If some like it or not but Iowa IS our rival now. It is the most natural one we have on many different levels.  Rivalries don’t always have to do with H2H.  Some say Wisconsin but they do NOT see us as a rival by a big margin.  Minnesota is their natural rival anyway.  Their whole worlds revolve around one another. 
 

Iowa’s natural rival is of course Iowa State but not in the same conference. That is where we come in. The rest of the country think Nebraska/Iowa is natural. 
 

Missouri has faced the same issue in the SEC. Their rival is Kansas but not in the same conference. Much like Iowa, Arkansas was placed upon them to be their rival. As time has gone by, it has become more natural. I guess their next closes rival would be A&M?

 
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