(12-13-2018 05:13 PM)Storm Wrote:  I posted this on the Southern Miss board earlier and wanted to get thoughts from other conference fans.........................................


I've harped on this creation of rivalries for years and years, long before we lost the majority of our original teams. I pondered the question of why has CUSA not created any real rivalries over its existance. Certainly the most obvious reason is the sheer lack of history of the conference. However, the conference is now 23 years old and we should see, at the very least some serious "budding" rivalries. Of course that's been difficult since we've lost so many teams now.

Early on I advocated for a consistent "rivalry week" matchups across the conference. I wanted to see:Southern Miss vs Memphis, USF vs UCF, Houston vs SMU, ECU vs Marshall just to mention a few. For some reason, CUSA never stepped in to make this happen and the rivalries never took off like they should have.

Now here we are with the NEW CUSA and things haven't changed at all. A conference needs rivalries to thrive and build true fan interest. I don't understand why the conference officials haven't figured this out. I'd love for Southern Miss to move into the American, but that doesn't seem very likely. So, I guess we'll have to make the best of it.

So, here's my proposals anyway:
CUSA RIVALRY WEEK GAMES
Southern Miss vs La Tech
North Texas vs UTSA
Rice vs UTEP
UAB vs MTSU
FAU vs FIU
WKU vs Marshall
ODU vs Charlotte

These feel about right to me. Clearly they're regionally close which allows for fans to travel to these games. The conference should strive to make these rivals happen. I know some people will say rivals occur over time and that's true, but I'm not sure CUSA has time to let these occur naturally, so let's give it a boost! What harm could this cause?

Does anyone else think this is something CUSA should explore?

I liked it when what looked like existing rivalry games all fell during the traditional Thanksgiving rivalry week. Seems like we had that for a couple of seasons with Tech-USM, WKU-MTSU, FAU-FIU, and I guess the Texas schools playing in some combination. The push-back I got on Twitter when I complained about it going away this season was that there were other priorities for conference scheduling and it just wasn't that big of a deal.

But I do like the idea.

However, the problem with what you have listed above (and any other standing games) is that we have 14 teams in 7-team divisions. And so there really isn't a great way to get every team a rival. What you'd end up with is something like what you have above for UAB-MTSU (although I'd agree with the poster who said it should be WKU-MTSU which would leave Marshall out in the East). Even if you tried to just force something across divisions with the 2 teams left (in this case Marshall-UAB, which I guess does have some history), then it'd have to become a permanent cross-divisional game. And that throws off our whole divisional system - we'd probably all have to end up with a permanent cross-divisional "rival" which would be forced, and would further delay how often we see the other cross-divisional teams. We just don't have good natural rivalries across the divisions. Certainly none worth preserving for every season(much less 7 of them).

I guess you could just let that be the bye week for 2 teams if everyone was cool with that. Or let them play OOC games that week (maybe even a standing OOC rivalry game).

The other option might be to take the rivalries that already more or less exist (probably FAU-FIU, MTSU-WKU, and I would hope Tech-USM) and reserve those dates, but everyone else is mixed up as usual.

Or we could go to pods instead of divisions, which would have some advantages (although as much as I like the idea of pods instead of divisions, the geographical divisions actually work pretty well for CUSA).

Marshall has a beginning rivalry with WKU, and MT, USM are friendly rivalries. If Marshall wants heated rivalries, we would need to share a conference with UCF and ECU, or simply go back to the MAC. Toledo, Miami and Ohio hated us to no end.

Conference Realignment has created such a bizarre dynamic among G5 schools. I feel like almost none of us are in a conference with teams we actually have a history with at this point. all in conference hate is manufactured, except in very rare circumstances.

(12-14-2018 11:57 AM)ImfromClayton Wrote:  Conference Realignment has created such a bizarre dynamic among G5 schools. I feel like almost none of us are in a conference with teams we actually have a history with at this point. all in conference hate is manufactured, except in very rare circumstances.

I don't know that it's a whole lot worse than the P5 conferences.

The G5 has some of their old and/or natural rivalries. And some teams that have barely played one another (and barely will). But so does the P5 - nobody in the Big 10 cares about Maryland or Rutgers. Indiana doesn't have any kind of rivalry with Nebraska. Missouri's rivalry with Arkansas is really being forced, and may take off but doesn't have much history. I doubt Colorado and Utah have many historic ties to each other (or anyone else in the Pac-12).

I think rivalries are an important part of college football. And I think it's worth working as a conference to promote those that exist and to cultivate new ones that make sense. But even in the really old conferences with consistent(ish) cores that have been together forever, not every single team "hates" every other team. You just can't - even in the old 8 or 9 team conferences. In the current big conference environment, you're just not going to have some passionate hate for every team (past the usual let's win every game mentality).

(12-14-2018 11:49 AM)beefcake0520 Wrote:  Marshall has a beginning rivalry with WKU, and MT, USM are friendly rivalries. If Marshall wants heated rivalries, we would need to share a conference with UCF and ECU, or simply go back to the MAC. Toledo, Miami and Ohio hated us to no end.

Ahhhh, the good ol’ days of Oddball, Queen Amidala, and let’s not forget our favorite Marshall hater from WMU, Harry Horsepower.

A Charlotte/ODU rivalry would probably be called something like the "Battle for the Crown". Both universities use a crown logo:

Can't speak for other UAB fans but the only other CUSA school I give a **** about playing in football is USM. They were the benchmark for Southern Independent football for a long time, feared and respected by the surrounding SEC schools, and we've measured our program against them from the beginning. Plus, they have a lot of grads in the Birmingham area and usually bring a decent crowd.

The two founding members left. One game a season both fan bases can pretend we're not in the CUSA-Belt.

(12-14-2018 12:19 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  

(12-14-2018 11:49 AM)beefcake0520 Wrote:  Marshall has a beginning rivalry with WKU, and MT, USM are friendly rivalries. If Marshall wants heated rivalries, we would need to share a conference with UCF and ECU, or simply go back to the MAC. Toledo, Miami and Ohio hated us to no end.

Ahhhh, the good ol’ days of Oddball, Queen Amidala, and let’s not forget our favorite Marshall hater from WMU, Harry Horsepower.

No doubt lol I do wonder sometimes if that is where we should be after all these shakeups, not that I don't like a lot of the programs we are with, there is just something missing and we all seem to know what it is. We did hate UCF and ECU, USM were good friendly rivals for us in 2.0, but in the MAC, they loathed us, made things very interesting. I remember byron's last year in the champ game, Toledo taking cheap shots as his leg and Steve S. body slamming the DT after the fact. The Miami game that same year when Byron was out and Hill in his place, man what a game and how much hate was displayed after the game. We ruined WMU's chance at a championship in 2000 after Byron matured through the season, they spanked us earlier that year, ruined their first chance against us Chad's senior year, they had us dead to rights, we storm back and win it in fashion. We made them hate us so much that the conference grew up as a result. I guess it was hard for them having a 1AA team come in, and rule them right off the bat.

(12-14-2018 12:28 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  A Charlotte/ODU rivalry would probably be called something like the "Battle for the Crown". Both universities use a crown logo:

I like "BATTLE ROYAL" better

I don' think App should go a year where at least UNCC or Marshall isn't slated for an OOC game. I'd totally forgo a yearly FCS win to make the schedule work out if needed. I feel like the history with Marshall and the upfront total dislike by/for UNCC means things are already in place to have outstanding rivalries with those two. If they wanted someone on rivarly weekend I'd be happy to see it be App since the SunBelt makes us play GaSo on Thursday mid-season.

Either of those games would draw better and mean more for players/fans than games against TxSt or ULM.

I’d much rather have App on our slate than the likes of Liberty, Norfolk State, Kent State, or Akron.

(12-14-2018 12:28 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  A Charlotte/ODU rivalry would probably be called something like the "Battle for the Crown". Both universities use a crown logo:

Yeah... why do you have a crown?? I mean, we are Monarchs. We are kings, or something like it. They wear crowns.

You've just got a rich old man with a pickaxe. What does that have to do with crowns?

(12-13-2018 11:11 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  For such a short time of being in the same conference as Marshall, Western and Marshall has built a rivalry and as long as both teams stay competitive it's only going to grow. Especially if both schools are winning in basketball and football...this is the way rivalries are made.

Just from reading this board Tech and UTSA hate each other and UNT is a close second for Tech fans.

If S. Miss gets back to where they are in the mix year in year out in basketball. I think that could be build into a 3rd rivalry game for Western. ODU and Western is very close to building our basketball games into a rivalry. Right now it's more so for ODU fans than Western.

I think it's the same way for ODU and Middle.

I am not sure which ODU fans you are referring to, tbh. I would like a rivalry in basketball with WKU as both teams have rich tradition and are consistently in the top half of the conference. But to say we care more than you, it's not that we don't care. But we definitely don't consider anyone in CUSA a real rival yet. VCU remains our only real rival.

MTSU is another story. Losing to them in everything for 7 years is just remarkable. I wouldn't call that a rivalry either.

Also, UTEP is our conference rival. It's like you all forget this fact all the time. It's so obvious!

(12-14-2018 02:42 PM)odu09 Wrote:  Yeah... why do you have a crown?? I mean, we are Monarchs. We are kings, or something like it. They wear crowns.

You've just got a rich old man with a pickaxe. What does that have to do with crowns?

So is Charlotte the real Queen City?

Why Is Charlotte, North Carolina, Called the "Queen City?"

Maybe it's just me... but it seems a little hard to let a natural rivalry develop if your in the same G5 conference. A real, nasty game that's worthy of being called a rivalry is when both teams never want the other to have success. In the G5 conferences, we all want our conference bretheren to win their OOC games, which to me kind of hurts the idea of being rivals.

Alabama and Auburn never want each other to win. Either team would be fine if the other went winless every season. Same for Oklahoma/Texas, Ohio State/Michigan, etc.

Seems like better rivalries would develop between OOC G5 teams. Troy vs. UAB is a good example IMO. Both fan bases heavily dislike each other. Neither team wants the other to be successful, and they don't have to pull for the other to win OOC games.

Just my thoughts...

(12-14-2018 03:18 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  Maybe it's just me... but it seems a little hard to let a natural rivalry develop if your in the same G5 conference. A real, nasty game that's worthy of being called a rivalry is when both teams never want the other to have success. In the G5 conferences, we all want our conference bretheren to win their OOC games, which to me kind of hurts the idea of being rivals.

Alabama and Auburn never want each other to win. Either team would be fine if the other went winless every season. Same for Oklahoma/Texas, Ohio State/Michigan, etc.

Seems like better rivalries would develop between OOC G5 teams. Troy vs. UAB is a good example IMO. Both fan bases heavily dislike each other. Neither team wants the other to be successful, and they don't have to pull for the other to win OOC games.

Just my thoughts...

There just isn't many that exists today among the G5 with that kind of hate. It goes back to the first blow ups of conferences. We had that kind of hate in conference when we were in the MAC. The only school we hated in CUSA like that was UCF. We played you guys and had a good little thing going but then the series never restarted. With the P5 beating us down more and more with every new blowup, whether it was the BCS bull crap or the new Playoff system, we end up having to cheer for our brethren instead of hating them, because at the end of the day we are fighting against the P5 and the right to belong.

East/West rivalries don't work for football, either, because it's like a decade before you play that team again after the home and home. Marshall/UAB cannot work for this reason. However we already have a bit of a basketball rivalry after the last 3-4 years. Some very close games and some blowouts to fuel the fire.

But 100+ years of playing schools like Ohio U and their proximity to us is always where the rivalry is going to be for us. I'm fine being in CUSA and would never, never want to go back to the MAC. But we are a geographic outlier, with Charlotte being the closest at 4 hours away. Everyone else is 6 or more hours away. It's important for us to schedule Ohio, Miami, and occasionally other eastern Ohio MAC teams simply because they're easy for fans to get to and we have a lot of history with those teams.

But don't worry, we hate every one of you mfers when we're playing you.

(12-14-2018 04:03 PM)MUther Wrote:  East/West rivalries don't work for football, either, because it's like a decade before you play that team again after the home and home. Marshall/UAB cannot work for this reason. However we already have a bit of a basketball rivalry after the last 3-4 years. Some very close games and some blowouts to fuel the fire.

But 100+ years of playing schools like Ohio U and their proximity to us is always where the rivalry is going to be for us. I'm fine being in CUSA and would never, never want to go back to the MAC. [b]But we are a geographic outlier, with Charlotte being the closest at 4 hours away. Everyone else is 6 or more hours away.[/b] It's important for us to schedule Ohio, Miami, and occasionally other eastern Ohio MAC teams simply because they're easy for fans to get to and we have a lot of history with those teams.

But don't worry, we hate every one of you mfers when we're playing you.

You are forgetting about Western a short 4 hour drive, UNCC is around 5 hours....

Western has Middle at 2 hours and then UAB and Marshall 4 hours so I think most of us are in the same boat

Everyone is basically forgetting that it's CUSA we're talking about here. The conference leadership does everything possible to prevent this & does the opposite to create them. UAB could/does have some core ones developing in LaT, USM, MTSU & WKU to a bit. All are pretty close to be day trips for fans either way but again CUSA leadership basically does what it can to prevent developing fanbases that will travel for these type games.