Northwest Triangle of Hate

[eyekwah]

When I rank conference foes and include all sports this is the top of my list:
Minnesota - Floyd of Rosedale
Wisconsin -

2nd Tier
Illinois - Basketball
Purdue - Basketball and to some degree Football

3rd Tier
Nebraska - Basically football

With the amount of change going on you have to save some history and a majority of Iowa fans would consider Minnesota and Wisconsin both historical.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

Give me the Minnesota and Wisconsin rivalries. Nebraska still feels like the redneck cousin nobody talked about...that somehow got connected back to the family and really doesn't belong.

 

[SmokeTownHawk]

The Nebraska game was ok for a bit, but they really belong back in the Big 12. Minny and Wisky for protected rivalries with maybe Illinois and jNW rotating every other year.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Nebraska used to be awesome, and we played them occasionally. They were incredible for a long time, but I'm not sure they are coming back to any greatness, any time soon. So, I agree mostly, but I question Nebraska's ability to return to any kind of team that would place better than maybe 4th in the Big Ten West. Perhaps their next coach will be able to do it, but the landscape has changed a great deal in college football, and most of the kids they might recruit weren't even alive when they were great. So, it remains to be seen I guess. Meanwhile, Wisconsin, NW, Purdue, and Minny are all better than Nebraska, and may be for the foreseeable future. I don't know if this is cyclical.

Agree with everything you state. Yea, I'm not sure Nebby is ever going to get back to their fans expectations. The landscape of college football is just different and their game is just different from what they ran back in the day. Recruiting is not the same. Also, let's face it, Nebby used to be in the Big 8 so they really only had to deal with Oklahoma in conference on a yearly basis. We now have jumbo conferences.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Northwestern game sucks.

Low-rent fans in a turd of a stadium who don't give two shits about football. Usually garbage weather too. Feels like you're at a high school game and on TV there are high school games that are louder. If you want to keep NW then it has to be at Kinnick every year.

Minnesota sucks as well. Least P5-feeling stadium in all of football, and most fans that give a shit are geriatric. That game died out a long time ago.

But at least you get a view of the (abandoned?) Gold Medal flour mill on the banks of the mighty Mississippi (which in Minneapolis isn't much wider than the Cedar River in some spots.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Minnesota can take a hike. We need to keep playing nebraska at all costs.

Make those genetic defectives hate Thanksgiving.

They certainly hated it in '17 when they got their doors blown off on their own field amd Me orial stadium at the end of the third quarter looked like the end of a Thomas Rhett concert.

That greased the skids for Riley and ushered in the ice age of the current Frosty regime.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Yeah I think sometimes we lose sight of the men behind the curtain....

Toto-ly brilliant observation.

 

[Northside Hawk]

The Nebraska game was ok for a bit, but they really belong back in the Big 12. Minny and Wisky for protected rivalries with maybe Illinois and jNW rotating every other year.

I'd like to see Illinois come back to being the rival it was in the eighties.

Maybe Bert can make it happen. But Bert should never have left Wisconsin. Has it really been 14 years since Illinois beat us?

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Toto-ly brilliant observation.

Well we focus a boat load on the ADs and conference commissioners and what all they are saying and doing. End of the day Fox, ABC/ESPN are who's driving the bus. I don't think we know a fraction of how some of the strings are really being pulled.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Iowa seems to have more rivals than most teams. I think there are 3 legit, must have rivalries, and Wisconsin is pretty close to being in there as well. Based upon who I hate the most, my rankings are:

Nebraska
Iowa State
Minnesota
Wisconsin

We should play all 4 every year. I hate the ISU game too, but come on guys, that game is all the Clowns have to justify even having a program. Now, if for some reason ISU does not make the cut for the Super Conferences, and they end up in the MAC, then that game should die.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Has it really been 14 years since Illinois beat us?

I think so. I was at the game. I blew a .26 BAC on my buddy's portable breathalyzer so most of the game is a blur, but I was sobered up by the last drive. We went three down linemen and Juice Williams looked like John Elway slicing through the Cleveland Browns en route to a Super Bowl berth. I believe that coming off of that game we reeled off double digit wins in a row until Stanzi got destroyed by Corey Wooten.

EDIT - that was the last game where I drank brown liquor before the game.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

FOX will dictate what everybody will do. Nobody else's opinion matters.

I get your point on the power of TV, but this is not literally true. The deal that will get done will diffuse the power of the TV contracts to a number of entities, so no one broadcaster is going to have final say over who plays who. They can dictate game times and the like, but the conference will decide for itself how it will format the league and set schedules.

If we stick at 16, I think the best approach is 4 pods of 4. That would keep the Northern Triangle of Hate together (Iowa, Nebbie, Wisky, and Minny). I would prefer to grow to 20 and do 4 pods of 5. Make winning your division a bit more meaningful.

 

[racerhawk]

Iowa seems to have more rivals than most teams. I think there are 3 legit, must have rivalries, and Wisconsin is pretty close to being in there as well. Based upon who I hate the most, my rankings are:

Nebraska
Iowa State
Minnesota
Wisconsin

We should play all 4 every year. I hate the ISU game too, but come on guys, that game is all the Clowns have to justify even having a program. Now, if for some reason ISU does not make the cut for the Super Conferences, and they end up in the MAC, then that game should die.

Wisconsin is more than close to being in there. Many would say they are our biggest rival (looking at the all time records against each other, the 100 plus years of competition, border state, and the fact winning the big ten west goes through them. Nebraska doesn't come anywhere near that in terms of a real rivalry.

Don't get me wrong. Nebraska is fun to beat and I hate them.

 

[Fryowa]

I get your point on the power of TV, but this is not literally true.

Yeah it is. That's where the money comes from.

 

[Fryowa]

I hate the ISU game too, but come on guys, that game is all the Clowns have to justify even having a program.

Eff ISU. What happens to them is zero concern for Iowa.

 

[racerhawk]

Yeah it is. That's where the money comes from.

Totally agree. That's driving everything these days. Literally everything, it seems.

I like that the B10 will be a powerful conference, but certainly the ongoing change to a "super conference" and away from traditional, regional rivalries kinda sucks, in my opinion. But, it is what is and at least our team is on the positive side of this ledger. ISU maybe not so much, for example.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Yeah it is. That's where the money comes from.

I agree that the money is driving the ship, but I just don't get how that applies to this string. Does anyone really believe that an executive from Fox will demand that Iowa and Wisconsin stop playing each other? And that the league would just blush and say "yes sir."

I think what Rob meant is that the Big 10 will take the course that maximizes its TV revenue, and if that course leads to a set up where regional rivalries are discarded or diluted, then so be it. But, I do not believe that Fox can or will dictate divisions and scheduling. And, at the end of the day, there are great reasons for both sides to prioritize rivalries. Rivalries are good for ratings!

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Eff ISU. What happens to them is zero concern for Iowa.

The trouble is that for all of the haters of that game, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not, there isn't anyone who seriously believes that the schools or the legislators are going to let the series die. A lot of Iowa fans hate it, but I don't hear much from decisionmakers suggesting that the Cy-Hawk game is in any real jeopardy.

The only thing that will change that is if there is a radical realignment with the Super-conferences such that ISU is left out of the mix altogether, or the Super Conference model does not afford room for regular out of conference rival games.

Absent something along those lines, expect that ISU game every year for the foreseeable future.

 

[Fryowa]

The trouble is that for all of the haters of that game, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not, there isn't anyone who seriously believes that the schools or the legislators are going to let the series die. A lot of Iowa fans hate it, but I don't hear much from decisionmakers suggesting that the Cy-Hawk game is in any real jeopardy.

The only thing that will change that is if there is a radical realignment with the Super-conferences such that ISU is left out of the mix altogether, or the Super Conference model does not afford room for regular out of conference rival games.

Absent something along those lines, expect that ISU game every year for the foreseeable future.

If it comes down to network TV money they're gonna win out over legislators. A bunch of state congress people aren't going to tell the Big Ten and Big 12 that a game has to occur. That's ridiculous. You're wildly overestimating what they can do.

 

[Northside Hawk]

I think so. I was at the game. I blew a .26 BAC on my buddy's portable breathalyzer so most of the game is a blur, but I was sobered up by the last drive. We went three down linemen and Juice Williams looked like John Elway slicing through the Cleveland Browns en route to a Super Bowl berth. I believe that coming off of that game we reeled off double digit wins in a row until Stanzi got destroyed by Corey Wooten.

EDIT - that was the last game where I drank brown liquor before the game.

Wooten was the following year. We ran the naked bootleg play with great success the week before in that wild Halloween win vs Indiana. Then we decided to try it vs Northwestern.

Wooten wasn't fooled. By the time the play was over Northwestern was sitting on a loose ball in our end zone and Stanzi was knocked for the rest of the regular season.