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Post by universityjim on Jan 26, 2024 12:11:08 GMT -6
It used to be Miami, but I'm not sure Miami considered it a rivalry. Theirs is OHIO. Maybe we consider NIU a rivalry. Maybe NIU considers us one? Both of us do not have other in-state schools to ruffle our feathers/fur. old timers consider Miami the rivalry.... Anyone that started closely following around the early 2000's see NIU as the rivalry... Some of us view it as Toledo Miami more than any other MAC school, yes. I consider our rivalry with UT, CMU, and WMU just as valid as NIU even though they are not trophy games. When we first came into the MAC in the 70's CMU was a spectacular rivalry in football every year, but not like Miami. Having relatives who are Miami, yes, they hate BSU almost as much as Ohio. It is not a one sided rivalry. Ohio 1804, Miami 1809. That's history and rivalry you just are not going to beat. Miami's Wikipedia page lists their football rivals as Ohio, Ball State, and Cincinnati. Miami-Ball State was one of two protected cross-division rivalries in the MAC before divisions were disolved. From time to time other schools jump on the list. For a while EMU, for a while Bowling Green. Especially when Dickitch was there. Never really in football though. Butler used to be a hate/hate relationship in basketball. ISU still is but it never seemed to match the Butler hatred. Other sports have their specific hated rivals. Like Purdue-Fort Wayne in Men's Volleyball for example. |
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Post by cardfan on Jan 26, 2024 13:08:02 GMT -6
old timers consider Miami the rivalry.... Anyone that started closely following around the early 2000's see NIU as the rivalry... Some of us view it as Toledo Miami more than any other MAC school, yes. I consider our rivalry with UT, CMU, and WMU just as valid as NIU even though they are not trophy games. When we first came into the MAC in the 70's CMU was a spectacular rivalry in football every year, but not like Miami. Having relatives who are Miami, yes, they hate BSU almost as much as Ohio. It is not a one sided rivalry. Ohio 1804, Miami 1809. That's history and rivalry you just are not going to beat. Miami's Wikipedia page lists their football rivals as Ohio, Ball State, and Cincinnati. Miami-Ball State was one of two protected cross-division rivalries in the MAC before divisions were disolved. From time to time other schools jump on the list. For a while EMU, for a while Bowling Green. Especially when Dickitch was there. Never really in football though. Butler used to be a hate/hate relationship in basketball. ISU still is but it never seemed to match the Butler hatred. Other sports have their specific hated rivals. Like Purdue-Fort Wayne in Men's Volleyball for example. The flame of my hate for Butler burns eternal. I remember disliking them as a kid in the mid 70s when Butler was really bad. I just..... didn't like them. I remember when we won our first title in football WMU was PISSED because we played fewer MAC games that year than they did. I think there was a bit of a grudge there for awhile. |
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Post by universityjim on Jan 26, 2024 13:13:29 GMT -6
Miami more than any other MAC school, yes. I consider our rivalry with UT, CMU, and WMU just as valid as NIU even though they are not trophy games. When we first came into the MAC in the 70's CMU was a spectacular rivalry in football every year, but not like Miami. Having relatives who are Miami, yes, they hate BSU almost as much as Ohio. It is not a one sided rivalry. Ohio 1804, Miami 1809. That's history and rivalry you just are not going to beat. Miami's Wikipedia page lists their football rivals as Ohio, Ball State, and Cincinnati. Miami-Ball State was one of two protected cross-division rivalries in the MAC before divisions were disolved. From time to time other schools jump on the list. For a while EMU, for a while Bowling Green. Especially when Dickitch was there. Never really in football though. Butler used to be a hate/hate relationship in basketball. ISU still is but it never seemed to match the Butler hatred. Other sports have their specific hated rivals. Like Purdue-Fort Wayne in Men's Volleyball for example. The flame of my hate for Butler burns eternal. I remember disliking them as a kid in the mid 70s when Butler was really bad. I just..... didn't like them. I remember when we won our first title in football WMU was PISSED because we played fewer MAC games that year than they did. I think there was a bit of a grudge there for awhile. All the craziness that has happened over the years between WMU and BSU I assure you that is a rivalry. You can't just manufacture rivalries. They are about history. |
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Post by rmcalhoun on Jan 26, 2024 13:24:13 GMT -6
Only deep rooted Ball State and Toledo football fans no the history of BSU/Tol we have a little magic when it comes to Toledo... Toledo fans know it
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Post by villagepub on Jan 26, 2024 14:36:44 GMT -6
It used to be Miami, but I'm not sure Miami considered it a rivalry. Theirs is OHIO. Maybe we consider NIU a rivalry. Maybe NIU considers us one? Both of us do not have other in-state schools to ruffle our feathers/fur. old timers consider Miami the rivalry.... Anyone that started closely following around the early 2000's see NIU as the rivalry... Some of us view it as Toledo NIU was a forced rivalry. Being as far west as they are and not having built a rivalry, BSU was chosen to be their rival. Miami already had Ohio, and somewhat BGSU, before Ball State entered the MAC. Cincinnati was also a good Miami rival. BSU-Miami became a rivalry due to Miami's dominance of football in the early '70s. BSU came in and began winning right away and pissed them off. The Dwight Wallace years somewhat reduced the rivalry. |
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Post by rmcalhoun on Jan 26, 2024 15:05:28 GMT -6
Niu was forced but it is rwal thing now amongst players and newish fans
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Post by universityjim on Jan 26, 2024 15:05:53 GMT -6
old timers consider Miami the rivalry.... Anyone that started closely following around the early 2000's see NIU as the rivalry... Some of us view it as Toledo NIU was a forced rivalry. Being as far west as they are and not having built a rivalry, BSU was chosen to be their rival. Miami already had Ohio, and somewhat BGSU, before Ball State entered the MAC. Cincinnati was also a good Miami rival. BSU-Miami became a rivalry due to Miami's dominance of football in the early '70s. BSU came in and began winning right away and pissed them off. The Dwight Wallace years somewhat reduced the rivalry. There is more to it than that. The rumor I was always told was that Miami was the only school that voted against us coming into the MAC. Dave McClain used that as fuel for the fire to build the hatred of the MAC bully at the time. Brady Hoke who came to BSU in the late 70's told me he refused to wear red because Ohio State and Miami wear red. You'll notice he never wears red. The first time he beat Miami I bought him a case of Labatt Blue. His favorite beer. I've tried to find some documentation to back up that rumor about the vote but can't find it. |
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Post by villagepub on Jan 26, 2024 15:12:23 GMT -6
NIU was a forced rivalry. Being as far west as they are and not having built a rivalry, BSU was chosen to be their rival. Miami already had Ohio, and somewhat BGSU, before Ball State entered the MAC. Cincinnati was also a good Miami rival. BSU-Miami became a rivalry due to Miami's dominance of football in the early '70s. BSU came in and began winning right away and pissed them off. The Dwight Wallace years somewhat reduced the rivalry. There is more to it than that. The rumor I was always told was that Miami was the only school that voted against us coming into the MAC. Dave McClain used that as fuel for the fire to build the hatred of the MAC bully at the time. Brady Hoke who came to BSU in the late 70's told me he refused to wear red because Ohio State and Miami wear red. You'll notice he never wears red. The first time he beat Miami I bought him a case of Labatt Blue. His favorite beer. Yes. Miami did not want "lowly" BSU in the MAC. |
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Post by JacksonStreetElite on Jan 26, 2024 22:14:28 GMT -6
NIU was a forced rivalry. Being as far west as they are and not having built a rivalry, BSU was chosen to be their rival. As one who did some of the forcing I can explain. When I was a sophomore I thought it was a bummer we didn't have any heated rivalries. Miami had OU, Toledo had BGSU, and the Michigans had each other. So I went to the NIU message board and talked to them about it, and one of their moderators, HuskieMobileMan, was on board. I asked Brady about it at an event and he was very lukewarm, basically said "yeah but we aren't rivals." Undeterred, HuskieMobileMan and I both agreed to reach out to our respective AD's and propose the plan, so I emailed Tom Collins a suggestion that we start a trophy with NIU. To my surprise he emailed back and copied Matt Wolfert and asked Matt to meet with me. So I made a stupid little presentation explaining my reasoning and met with Matt. My recollection is that Matt was also kind of lukewarm about it, but they weren't opposed. The idea HuskieMobileMan and I proposed was the "founders trophy" which was to be some form of a Ball jar wrapped in barbed wire (NIU was founded by Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire). I didn't hear anything else after that until they publicly announced the bronze stalk trophy. For the first few years clearly nobody cared, but I think the trophy can take some of the credit for the heat between us and NIU for the past few years. |
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Post by universityjim on Jan 27, 2024 7:30:36 GMT -6
Yes, the Bronze Stalk is a thing now. Even amongst us fans who have been around for many years. We don't want to lose it. We even have a replica of the trophy we display at our tailgate party before the game. My wife spray painted it gold however. Gotta fix that.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 27, 2024 8:52:18 GMT -6
One would assume that if MAC expansion includes FCS, it'll happen within the next yaer or so that everyone will know what they are negotiating for. There is something to that. Of course that depends on the conference having some bargaining power to start with and potential for attractive TV. Calhoun pointed out how the TV contracts keep things in stasis. The MAC is sort of in a take it or leave it situation with TV. With the power conferences expanding they will want to have MORE TV games and that can only crowd out MACtion week day games over time. A few G5 conferences have enough TV market to get better TV. The MAC contract takes advantage of a previously untapped week night market. A P4 school could still sell out night games and offer better competition, and that would be part of a package where the network got prime conference games.
The second thing that is going to hold up an fast movement is that my bet is that not only are we going to see more of the P4 schools moving around, more expansion at the top, but then that cascades down at every level below, including FCS level. As that happens and everything is in flux, there will be a few schools each level jockeying around for the best deal and slow everything down.
If the log jam gets broken and things start to move, maybe it could move fast, but let's face it the MAC is not in a financially strong position, certainly not buying anybody out, and I don't see it as that attractive a conference to be first choice for FCS schools with ambition. Is there really much future in bottom FBS conference that serves as a stepping stone for FCS schools wanting to move up and not able to get into a better conference?
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Post by universityjim on Jan 27, 2024 9:31:07 GMT -6
BSU Top Ten Games Against
Football
64 Indiana State (1924)
64 Eastern Michigan (1936)
55 Central Michigan (1939)
50 Northern Illinois (1941)
49 Western Michigan (1971)
48 Toledo (1975)
38 Butler (1927)
36 Miami (Ohio) (1931)
34 Valparaiso (1930)
Basketball
139 Western Michigan (1932)
138 Indiana State (1922)
116 Eastern Michigan (1947)
110 Miami (Ohio) (1935)
108 Central Michigan (1956)
105 Butler (1924)
105 Toledo (1938)
101 Northern Illinois (1942)
94 Bowling Green (1965)
92 Kent State (1921)
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Post by rmcalhoun on Jan 27, 2024 9:31:13 GMT -6
Agreed One thing that does give the MAC some leverage if Money does become the end all say all of conference shake ups is we have remained regional. All the other conferences have branched out much further than us staying regional is one of the few wise choices the MAC has made
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Post by rmcalhoun on Jan 27, 2024 9:32:12 GMT -6
NIU was a forced rivalry. Being as far west as they are and not having built a rivalry, BSU was chosen to be their rival. As one who did some of the forcing I can explain. When I was a sophomore I thought it was a bummer we didn't have any heated rivalries. Miami had OU, Toledo had BGSU, and the Michigans had each other. So I went to the NIU message board and talked to them about it, and one of their moderators, HuskieMobileMan, was on board. I asked Brady about it at an event and he was very lukewarm, basically said "yeah but we aren't rivals." Undeterred, HuskieMobileMan and I both agreed to reach out to our respective AD's and propose the plan, so I emailed Tom Collins a suggestion that we start a trophy with NIU. To my surprise he emailed back and copied Matt Wolfert and asked Matt to meet with me. So I made a stupid little presentation explaining my reasoning and met with Matt. My recollection is that Matt was also kind of lukewarm about it, but they weren't opposed. The idea HuskieMobileMan and I proposed was the "founders trophy" which was to be some form of a Ball jar wrapped in barbed wire (NIU was founded by Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire). I didn't hear anything else after that until they publicly announced the bronze stalk trophy. For the first few years clearly nobody cared, but I think the trophy can take some of the credit for the heat between us and NIU for the past few years. This is a great story hope you dont mind if I share it sometime when needed? |
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Post by cardfan on Jan 27, 2024 9:54:34 GMT -6
NIU was a forced rivalry. Being as far west as they are and not having built a rivalry, BSU was chosen to be their rival. Miami already had Ohio, and somewhat BGSU, before Ball State entered the MAC. Cincinnati was also a good Miami rival. BSU-Miami became a rivalry due to Miami's dominance of football in the early '70s. BSU came in and began winning right away and pissed them off. The Dwight Wallace years somewhat reduced the rivalry. There is more to it than that. The rumor I was always told was that Miami was the only school that voted against us coming into the MAC. Dave McClain used that as fuel for the fire to build the hatred of the MAC bully at the time. Brady Hoke who came to BSU in the late 70's told me he refused to wear red because Ohio State and Miami wear red. You'll notice he never wears red. The first time he beat Miami I bought him a case of Labatt Blue. His favorite beer. I've tried to find some documentation to back up that rumor about the vote but can't find it. Brady is a Labatts man? Nice! |
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