Rivalries Within the PAC12

[PAC MAN]

3 hours ago, Scscsc89 said:

“There is nothing worse than losing to UCLA and nothing better than beating Notre Dame.”

— John McKay

I'd have to put CSU and Nebraska for CU but beating Norte Dame is still awesome!  I'm sure Beavers fans would agree with that too.

[Scorcho]

16 hours ago, Chad Sexington said:

As I’ve learned so far (listed alphabetically, in descending order) :

Arizona:  ASU, Utah, UCLA, USC 

Arizona St:  Arizona, USC, Colorado, Utah 

California:  Stanford, UCLA, USC

Colorado:  Nebraska, Arizona St, Utah 

Oregon:  Washington, Oregon St, USC, Stanford 

Oregon St:  Oregon, Washington St

Stanford:  California, Notre Dame, USC, UCLA 

UCLA:  USC, Stanford, California, Arizona 

USC:  Notre Dame, UCLA, Stanford, California

Utah:  BYU, USC, Colorado, Arizona St

Washington:  Oregon, USC, Washington St

Washington St:  Washington, Oregon St, Oregon 

How close am I?

as my pops likes to remind me Utah vs. Utah State was the bigger rivalry for many years prior to BYU hiring Lavell Edwards.  I know in football Utah vs. USU its essentially dead as the schools don't play each other, but as USU has improved it might become a thing again?  I'd put it right behind ASU for now.

[Orange]

12 hours ago, win2bfree said:

UW vs Cal has a rivalry going all the way back to the formation of the PAC (in it's earliest version) as two of the original teams.  Next year will be the 100th meeting.

UW vs OSU would be bigger if they were both good at the same time for a significant stretch.  OSU has been bad for much of their history and the period were they were good, UW was awful.  OSU is UW's closest geographical opponent (closer than WSU).

Even when we were good and UW was mediocre, they found a way to beat us.  2013 comes immediately to mind.  OS is CONSTANTLY choking against any of the other traditionally bigger programs/schools (didn't win at Sun Devil Stadium from 1969 until like 2007; constantly struggled at Stanford and @UCLA or home versus UCLA, even when we were good at pigball).

Another rivalry that figures big in the Pac NW for the Oregon schools is Boise State.  Duck fans and Beavers fans probably agree more on their hatred of the broncs than anything else.

[Orange]

8 hours ago, Jalapeno said:

I'd have to put CSU and Nebraska for CU but beating Norte Dame is still awesome!  I'm sure Beavers fans would agree with that too.

Beating Notre Dame grew surprisingly boring for us.

[azgreg]

24 minutes ago, Orange said:

Beating Notre Dame grew surprisingly boring for us.

Had to look that up. 2-0, nice job. That beating in  2001 was especially nice.

http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin/records/opp-opp.pl?start=1869&end=2018&team1=OregonState&team2=Notre+Dame

[Orange]

Yeah, it's not much of a sample-size, but it's a sampling.  lol

[row Z]

17 hours ago, Card Tricks said:

Not sure Stanford considers UCLA a rival on the same level as Cal and USC.

Notre Dame for sure though.

I'd probably swap out UCLA with Oregon & Washington. Oregon was one of the most fun non-traditional rivalries of the 2010s.

Sad that I'm admitting that on the eve of getting blown out by the Ducks at home...

I appreciate this post. To me, the 4-way California "rivalries" seem contrived and mostly based on proximity, as opposed to history. Has UCLA v. Cal or UCLA v. Stanford ever moved the needle for any fans outside of the respective schools? I would say no, and that should be part of the test: do fans outside of the two fan bases recognize the rivalry. 

[Scscsc89]

49 minutes ago, row Z said:

To me, the 4-way California "rivalries" seem contrived and mostly based on proximity, as opposed to history.

I can’t speak for UCLA, but there’s a shit-ton of history around USC with both Cal & Stanford dating back to before 1920.    As a student, the one away game tradition you never missed was the annual Bay Area weekender.

Not to mention the cultural rivalry between southern and northern california.

 

49 minutes ago, row Z said:

that should be part of the test: do fans outside of the two fan bases recognize the rivalry. 

See above.   If outsiders are ignorant or indifferent towards a rivalry, I don’t see how it impacts the actual rivalry.

[Cavern Coug]

I am not aware of any animosity between WSU and OSU.

Maybe U of Idaho just because it was only 7 1/2 miles away from WSU. However its been a pretty one side rivalry.

[utenation]

20 hours ago, Jalapeno said:

I thought the CU-Utah rivalry was off to a good start after CU kept Utah out of the first Pac-12 CCG and the 2016 game with the South title but nothing has happened it appears.  Even a red bike couldn't ignite that rivalry. What ever disdain I had for the Utes disappeared when the Cornhuskers came back on the schedule and the game at Lincoln showed me how much I hate one particular school and no other school comes close period.  Utah has the same colors but not the behavior of Cornhusker fans.

 

It might actually help if CU was competitive. Utah is 6-2 against CU.. And most games look like a murder scene after.. I think you'll have to keep trotting out your "Kept Utah out of the 2011 CCG" routine for awhile as it's about all you have in this series.. The 2016 team was good but when you fall right back to last place the next year, the good year seems much more of a fluke than anything.

 

 

We kick the shit out of BYU all the time but there is real ingrained hate there..

 

[Utefan1211]

I don’t see any Utah rivalries yet. Media wanted a Colorado rivalry. Didn’t happen. 

[EastCoastFan]

Unlike the B1G and SEC, and even the Big XII, the Pac-12 is short on real rivalries.  In football there simply is no Oklahoma/Texas, Michigan/Ohio State, or Bama/Auburn.  Some thoughts on the Pac-12:

• Arizona/ASU probably qualifies, but in football, neither school has a real rivalry with anybody else.
• Utah/BYU qualifies, but the Utes aren't on any Pac-12 team's "fierce" list of being a rival.  Maybe that'll change if the Utes keep winning.  This is the problem with a a lot of relative newcomers to a conference.  For example, even after many years, Penn State isn't anybody's serious rival in the B1G, and they only occasionally play the old rival, Pitt.
• Colorado is even worse off than Utah.  The Buffs don't want CSU as a rival, and Nebraska doesn't want CU as a rival.  One definition of a rival is somebody you want to see lose every week  almost as much as you want your team to win.,  Nobody in the Pac-12 cares what happens to the Buffs eleven out of twelve Saturdays.  It's sort of like Louisville in the ACC or Missouri in the SEC or Maryland in the B1G.  At football, they're just background noise.
• USC/UCLA does qualify, although if either team could muster a great season, it would make it a lot more real outside of LA.  As for Stanford/Cal, yeah, it's a rivalry, but usually the Bears are so wounded by the game date that nothing rides on it.
• Oregon/Washington right now is probably the best the Pac-12 has as a rivalry.  Each team stands in the way of the other to be a top dog.  Washington State/Washington also currently qualifies, but that's because of the magician Leach.  Once he leaves, it'll once again just be a cute little intra-state game.
• Like Colorado, Oregon State has no real rival in football.  Nobody cares.  But unlike CU, the Beavers don't have the excuse of being relatively new to their conference.

 

[Orange]

8 hours ago, Downthefield said:

Unlike the B1G and SEC, and even the Big XII, the Pac-12 is short on real rivalries.  In football there simply is no Oklahoma/Texas, Michigan/Ohio State, or Bama/Auburn.  Some thoughts on the Pac-12:

• Arizona/ASU probably qualifies, but in football, neither school has a real rivalry with anybody else.

How does this qualify as a rivalry, but the Civil War doesn't?  Arizona has been horribly mediocre for all but 5 of the past 20 years.

8 hours ago, Downthefield said:

• Utah/BYU qualifies, but the Utes aren't on any Pac-12 team's "fierce" list of being a rival.  Maybe that'll change if the Utes keep winning.  This is the problem with a a lot of relative newcomers to a conference.  For example, even after many years, Penn State isn't anybody's serious rival in the B1G, and they only occasionally play the old rival, Pitt.
• Colorado is even worse off than Utah.  The Buffs don't want CSU as a rival, and Nebraska doesn't want CU as a rival.  One definition of a rival is somebody you want to see lose every week  almost as much as you want your team to win.,  Nobody in the Pac-12 cares what happens to the Buffs eleven out of twelve Saturdays.  It's sort of like Louisville in the ACC or Missouri in the SEC or Maryland in the B1G.  At football, they're just background noise.
• USC/UCLA does qualify, although if either team could muster a great season, it would make it a lot more real outside of LA.  As for Stanford/Cal, yeah, it's a rivalry, but usually the Bears are so wounded by the game date that nothing rides on it.
• Oregon/Washington right now is probably the best the Pac-12 has as a rivalry.  Each team stands in the way of the other to be a top dog.  Washington State/Washington also currently qualifies, but that's because of the magician Leach.  Once he leaves, it'll once again just be a cute little intra-state game.
• Like Colorado, Oregon State has no real rival in football.  Nobody cares.  But unlike CU, the Beavers don't have the excuse of being relatively new to their conference.

 

Huh?

[Scscsc89]

Downthefield

[Chile_Ute]

1 hour ago, Scscsc89 said:

Downthefield

Downthefield is the Fonz?!!

[Quack 12]

10 hours ago, Downthefield said:

Oregon State has no real rival in football.  Nobody cares. 

We all know you love diminishing OSU for whatever reason, but you couldn't be more wrong about the CW. It's the oldest rivalry game west of the Mississippi, and fifth-oldest in the country. 

"Is there a natty up in here?"

 

[Orange]

12 minutes ago, Quack 12 said:

We all know you love diminishing OSU for whatever reason, but you couldn't be more wrong about the CW. It's the oldest rivalry game west of the Mississippi, and fifth-oldest in the country. 

"Is there a natty up in here?"

 

Honestly, I'm pretty sure that guy was stone-cold sober.

[PAC MAN]

On 9/18/2019 at 1:07 PM, utenation said:

It might actually help if CU was competitive. Utah is 6-2 against CU.. And most games look like a murder scene after.. I think you'll have to keep trotting out your "Kept Utah out of the 2011 CCG" routine for awhile as it's about all you have in this series.. The 2016 team was good but when you fall right back to last place the next year, the good year seems much more of a fluke than anything.

 

 

We kick the shit out of BYU all the time but there is real ingrained hate there..

 

CU fans still troll Husker fans with 62-36 to this day since they haven't won a conference championship ever since.  I'll troll you Ute fans until you finally win a Pac-12 CCG.

[utenation]

14 minutes ago, Jalapeno said:

.  I'll troll you Ute fans until you finally win a Pac-12 CCG.

I'd say use your focus on helping put resources into CU's football program.. They need it...

[Orange]

I don't know what's worse in terms of inciting more jalapeno posts, CU winning or Utah winning...There may not be an intermountain rivalry in this conference, but there is a rivalry between jalapeno and Ute fans.  Oh, and common sense.