Wisconsin-Nebraska provides one of best new rivalries in college football

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Wisconsin fan here, I'll try to respond to some of the things here.

First, most serious longtime (and mostly long-suffering) Badger fans recognize that Alvarez patterned the program after Devaney and Nebraska. Fans under the age of about 30-35 haven't really suffered in their conscious sports lives, and they tend to be the cockier, less grounded in reality types.

Second, I don't think we've known you long enough to be a rivalry. Although one of the great highlights in a dark era of Badger lore was beating the Johnny Rodgers Huskers in 1974, we just haven't played many times yet. We've also had the better of it when we've met while you've been in the B1G, so we haven't built up much animosity. I would understand if you've built up animosity towards us given the results, though.

Third, we hate Minnesota and they hate us, and it spills over into pro sports (or maybe it's the other way around, but anyway, there is mutual disdain). The UW-MN game is the longest continuously played rivalry in college football (at least in major college football - DePauw-Wabash might actually be longer). Despite the suckitude of Minnesota football for a half-century, and Wisconsin winning the last dozen and 19 of the last 21, UW still trails in the overall series 58-59-8. We love carrying around the axe when we win and chopping down the goalposts (I'm sure the Gophers would too, if they ever got the chance) - a couple of years ago, the Gopher players decided they weren't going to let the Badgers cut down the goalposts on their end in Mpls (see pic below). In my opinion, it should always be the last game, despite Nebraska clearly being more of a peer program. I do like the idea of Halloween week, though.

Thanks for adding your perspective to the conversation. I understand where you're coming from and to be honest I never really paid attention to the Minnesota/Wisconsin rivalry so I was kinda unaware it was that big of a deal. I would love to have a constructive conversation with an older Wisconsin fan to get that perspective. All of the people I've talked to have probably become fans in the past 10 years or so of Wisconsin so I should probably take them with a grain of salt. I've been a fan of Nebraska since the 90's, approximately middle school for me so I don't have the perspective of Nebraska from the years before that to go off of.

 

[Redux]

I'm happy with the placement of this game on the schedule. Iowa needs to move to week 2 of the season when Oklahoma joins us, they can be Black Friday game.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I love the Wisconsin/Nebraska rivalry that is building. Two programs that are very much alike other than we have some hardware in the case that they don't. It is a very natural rivalry.

I think Iowa is a natural rival also but it just seemed forced when we joined. It will build from here.

 

[Fru]

Is this a rivalry game right now? In my opinion, no. Can it become a great rivalry? You betcha. All of the ingredients are there. NU needs to show up and win. Plain and simple.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

It is interesting that some don't look at Iowa as a rival (a team that NU has close games with and beats more times than not, I think) but that some do look at Wisconsin as a rival a team that NU doesn't really beat that much and has been blown out by a few times.

Then you have Badger fans that don't look at Nebraska as a rival because they usually win and usually win big.

This would be a cool college paper!

 

[WhatDoIKnow]

Second, I don't think we've known you long enough to be a rivalry. Although one of the great highlights in a dark era of Badger lore was beating the Johnny Rodgers Huskers in 1974, we just haven't played many times yet. We've also had the better of it when we've met while you've been in the B1G, so we haven't built up much animosity. I would understand if you've built up animosity towards us given the results, though.

Johnny Rodgers in 1974?

 

[BoNeyard]

I think it's becoming a more natural rivalry than the forced one that is the Iowa game. I personally think they should move the Iowa game to somewhere else on the schedule and put the Wisconsin game on black Friday. More often than not the Wisconsin vs. Nebraska game will probably mean more than the Iowa vs. Nebraska game. Look at the OSU vs. Michigan game this year. How much is that game going to mean?! Huge game, that's what I think this Wisconsin vs. Nebraska game can get to. I think the Wisconsin fans are a-holes, but I respect their team and how they go about things.

Completely agree.

The really forced "rivalry" was the Penn State one when Nebraska first entered the B1G. They for some reason made PSU our annual rival from the Leaders division when it should have been Wisconsin all along. I guess they figured since PSU was the newest member in the conference before Nebraska it fit?

But rivalries are meant to be built like Nebraska/Wisconsin are becoming. It's a natural progression.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I think it's becoming a more natural rivalry than the forced one that is the Iowa game. I personally think they should move the Iowa game to somewhere else on the schedule and put the Wisconsin game on black Friday. More often than not the Wisconsin vs. Nebraska game will probably mean more than the Iowa vs. Nebraska game. Look at the OSU vs. Michigan game this year. How much is that game going to mean?! Huge game, that's what I think this Wisconsin vs. Nebraska game can get to. I think the Wisconsin fans are a-holes, but I respect their team and how they go about things.

Completely agree.

The really forced "rivalry" was the Penn State one when Nebraska first entered the B1G. They for some reason made PSU our annual rival from the Leaders division when it should have been Wisconsin all along. I guess they figured since PSU was the newest member in the conference before Nebraska it fit?

But rivalries are meant to be built like Nebraska/Wisconsin are becoming. It's a natural progression.

Well, the whole Legends and Leaders divisions were craptastic. Then when Wisconsin and Minnesota were put in different divisions under that split, they demanded that they be the "cross-division" rivalry with each other since that rivalry has such a long history with those teams. NU wasn't given much choice when the "cross-division" rivalry was designated. NU-Penn State had heated games in the late 70s and early 80s, along with the 1994 National Championship controversy, so that was a decent choice during that time.

 

[formerlybis]

Second, I don't think we've known you long enough to be a rivalry. Although one of the great highlights in a dark era of Badger lore was beating the Johnny Rodgers Huskers in 1974, we just haven't played many times yet. We've also had the better of it when we've met while you've been in the B1G, so we haven't built up much animosity. I would understand if you've built up animosity towards us given the results, though.

Johnny Rodgers in 1974?

I was pretty young at the time and Rodgers was one of the earliest college football stars I remembered growing up & I naturally associated him with Nebraska & over the years I must've talked myself into thinking I actually saw him that day. So I was off by a couple years - you did have David Humm, though.

 

[Redux]

I really liked our series with Penn State. It's a shame we can't do that yearly anymore.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I really liked our series with Penn State. It's a shame we can't do that yearly anymore.

I'm not a fan of forced, "cross-divisional" rivalries. It creates an imbalance in the strength of schedule, and it doesn't allow for a great variety of teams that NU would play from the other division. There is already talk of a 16 team conference, with two 8-team divisions. In that instance, NU would play only 2 teams from the East division (unless the B1G somehow adopted a pod schedule system).

 

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

Speaking of rivalries and Fandom aside.. Kinda bummed we won't be seeing an undefeated mich Osu matchup, that would have been fun

 

[Landlord]

It's not a rivalry if we never win.

 

[RunMickeyRun02]

I wonder if Wisconsin fans feel like "we" are forcing a rivalry with them?

I don't know but for me, I feels like how we always denied K-State and Colorado games were rivalries. We aren't holding up our end of the bargain. One main ingredient (at least for me) is a relatively even win/loss split and close competitive games. Sure this may change in the future but since joining the Big Ten we've only beaten them once. I do think the potential is there though.

I know some may laugh but NW actually feels rivalryish to me. Lots of NU alumns in Chicago, culturally a lot different, come backs, upsets, close games, unbelievable endings.

As for Iowa it's interesting how it's rivalry status seems to fade as you go west from the Missouri even between Omaha and Lincoln.

In order to have a rivalry, both teams need a fan/alumni base that care about football. The Northwestern fan/alumni base don't really care about football. There is a reason why NU fans are able to take over half of the stadium every time NU goes to Evanston.

Yeah, I thought about that but but non of our potential candidates are perfect in my opinion at the moment. Also, I did qualify it with an "ish"

 

[Hoosker]

It's not a rivalry if we never win.

Thank goodness that's not the case, huh?