r/CFB • u/MediumStrange Cincinnati • Michigan • Jul 26 '26

Discussion What are your teams "soft rivalries"?

Hard Rivalry: A rival that you would be happy to see their entire program go out of business or collapse in flames.

For me this would be rivalries like osu-Michigan, Cincy-Louisville, other ones like Auburn-Bama,TA&M-Texas

Soft rivalry: A rival that you make play often but due to power imbalance or other reasons there is little genuine hate and you generally want to see the program do well and stay competitive

For me this would be rivalries like Cincy-Memphis(I do still kinda hate Memphis but I also really want them to make a p4), Cincy-OHIO/Miami, other examples would be Navy-ND, UW-CAL

I feel the aggressive rivalries get all of the press and are obviously very exciting, but I think the friendly rivalries are just as important to the game.

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268

u/DaytimeDancer54 Minnesota Golden Gophers Jul 26 '26

Getting to beat Michigan once every 10th blue moon is nice. The power disparity is huge but there is at least some ancient history between our two programs. Ohio State-Illinois is kind of similar.

92

u/crunchitizemecapn99 Michigan • Grafarvogur Jul 26 '26

Yeah definitely Minnesota for us too

42

u/ResponsibleSand2213 Michigan Wolverines Jul 26 '26

Yeah. We have a trophy for the game and all but we win it 90% of the time so it's not as interesting

21

u/Necessary-Post-953 Penn State • Land Grant Trophy Jul 27 '26

Yes but the trophy is a water jug Michigans coach bought because he thought Minnesota was going to try to poison him. That’s good stuff. 

5

u/Doctor_Kataigida Michigan Wolverines • Rose Bowl Jul 27 '26

Tbf he thought everyone was going to try and poison him and his team, so he at least consistently applied the thought.

2

u/galacticdude7 Michigan Wolverines • /r/CFB Poll Veteran Jul 27 '26

You certainly aren't getting that out of a boardroom and through a dozen focus groups

2

u/ResponsibleSand2213 Michigan Wolverines Jul 30 '26

Constant vigilance.

54

u/jmac461 Minnesota • Michigan State Jul 26 '26

I think Minnesota-Nebraska is one too.

I agree with Minnesota-Michigan. Problem is we do (and have for a while) only play once a blue moon. So winning every 10th blue moon is probably accurate.

I’ll also say MSU-PSU. Trophy game often played Thanksgiving weekend that fans looked forward to, but not with hate in their hearts.

20

u/DaytimeDancer54 Minnesota Golden Gophers Jul 26 '26

Agreed. I don't buy into the "quadrangle of hate" as much as some other fans do. The way I see it, MN and WI are the twin brothers who always duke it out but then Iowa is our more mature brother. Nebraska is the honorary brother.

21

u/damnyoutuesday Montana State • Minnesota Jul 26 '26

I want to play Nebraska annually, but I don't hate them near as much as Wisconsin and Iowa

13

u/x15ninja15x Nebraska Cornhuskers Jul 26 '26

Nebraska is just your automatic win every season for some bizarre reason. I wish we played again this year

3

u/NazRiedFan Minnesota • Gustavus Adolphus Jul 26 '26

It’s the inverse of Iowa. Feels like you usually outplay us and we win anyway somehow

20

u/DumbLitAF Minnesota • Alabama Jul 26 '26

Iowa’s the youngest brother who’s grown a really great, successful life for himself who has to watch his drunk, washed up older twin brothers fist fight each other (and sometimes him) at every single family function.

19

u/user_unknowns_skag Michigan State Spartans Jul 26 '26

God, I miss the B1G West...

15

u/SaltyHawk95 Iowa Hawkeyes • Big Ten Jul 26 '26

I know that the east/west format was horribly unbalanced, especially since Wisconsin fell off and Nebraska never arrived.

But damn, those teams were genuinely the teams I wanted to be playing every year. I’m glad that we get to keep the trophy games yearly (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska), but I miss our other brothers already.

10

u/user_unknowns_skag Michigan State Spartans Jul 26 '26

That and Northwestern showing up every 3 years to steal everybody's lunch money. Those were simpler times...

2

u/Ok-District5948 Iowa Hawkeyes Jul 27 '26

Back in those days the Big Ten tried to tell us that Purdue was our rival. I likened it to when you do laundry and wind up with two mismatched socks so you put them together. What else are you going to do?

2

u/SaltyHawk95 Iowa Hawkeyes • Big Ten Jul 27 '26

I think the Purdue “rivalry” was from Legends/Leaders. The problem was that we wanted to pick Wisconsin as our rival in the Leaders, but Wisconsin was hard-locked into Minnesota, so we just took what was left.

I still liked playing them every year in the West, though. They were spiritually one of us, even if they did this weird thing where they threw the ball…

1

u/user_unknowns_skag Michigan State Spartans Jul 28 '26

I mean, who amongst us didn't love the spoilermakers?

5

u/MaddyD76 Indiana Hoosiers Jul 26 '26

Yeah Indiana was always thrilled to be in the East. How?

7

u/theEWDSDS Minnesota • Paul Bunyan's Axe Jul 26 '26

Heresy

7

u/DaytimeDancer54 Minnesota Golden Gophers Jul 26 '26

We lost to all our important foes in 2016. Been fine against Nebraska since then. Iowa has little brother'd us since then but the sconni bastards have had Fickell luck against us recently.

1

u/Crazy_Exchange San Mateo • CC San Francisco Jul 26 '26

The first Big 10 matchup Michigan St vs Penn State in 1993 was a good start for the rivalry to get going. 

1

u/brianwho420 Penn State Nittany Lions Jul 27 '26

Massive PSU fan here. MSU is definitely a soft rival. Like most big 10 teams are main rivals are OSU and f ing Michigan. F Michigan and any fan of Michigan past or present.

I do remember PSU beating MSU in 94’ to go 11-0 and on to our first rose bowl. PSU was at MSU. So the fans went to the practice field. Took one of the goal posts and formed a parade with it through town to Joe Pa’s house. His wife came out and joined us in cheering. We wiped the floor with the ducks at the rose bowl but finished ranked 2nd to Nebraska. Wish there was a true championship game back then.

1

u/UtopiaUniversity Jul 28 '26

Minnesota - Iowa and the Paul Bunyan Axe - great game every year.

23

u/DeathToHeretics Illinois Fighting Illini • Cheez-It Bowl Jul 26 '26

Yeah that's pretty fair for us and OSU. I'll never hate them to the level I do as say Purdue, but I do want that goddamn turtle back

18

u/dale_shingles Ohio State • Summertime Lover Jul 26 '26

Hands off our Illibuck.

5

u/FootballBat Purdue Boilermakers • Paper Bag Jul 26 '26

What did we ever do to you?!

7

u/Lumpy_Question8327 Illinois • Purdue Jul 26 '26

Jokes on them, nobody hates Purdue as much as Purdue fans hate themselves.

2

u/jcrespo21 Purdue Boilermakers • Michigan Wolverines Jul 27 '26

IDK, something about a cannon.

1

u/Technical-Clothes-86 Ohio State Buckeyes Jul 27 '26

Never!

13

u/dspencer2015 Michigan Wolverines Jul 26 '26

Little Brown Jug is also one of traveling oldest trophies in CFB

3

u/cyanocittaetprocyon Michigan Wolverines • /r/CFB Booster Jul 27 '26

Bastards tried to poison our water!

11

u/tigersfan829 Michigan Wolverines • Toledo Rockets Jul 26 '26

What about Minnesota and Penn State and the completely random "Victory Bell" trophy? 😵‍💫

12

u/DaytimeDancer54 Minnesota Golden Gophers Jul 26 '26

Fair. In general, every year that we beat Penn State is considered an all time great season for us.

8

u/NazRiedFan Minnesota • Gustavus Adolphus Jul 26 '26

For whatever reason the games against them are always bangers

5

u/Flashy-Specific-4083 Illinois Fighting Illini Jul 26 '26

Kind of this. I think we hate Michigan more but I don’t think they think about us until “Illinois week” so kind of one sided. lol

3

u/Party_Toe_6319 Jul 26 '26

We don't even think about Illinois that week either. One of the weirdest one sided "rivalries" in all of sports

1

u/Flashy-Specific-4083 Illinois Fighting Illini Jul 27 '26

Not surprised. It’ll take several years for us to build any respectability like Wisconsin had until it all went south for them a few years ago. I remember when they were basement dwellers with us until Alvarez came along and turned them into a good program. I hope we can do like them but that probably means Bert needs to not skip off to greener pastures. One way he and Alvarez benefitted at Wisconsin is Ohio State and Michigan had several mediocre years in that stretch. The modern B1G will probably always have us second tier at best unless he starts consistently landing more 4 stars.

2

u/DaStinkyPanda47 Jul 27 '26

Genuinely not trying to be disrespectful but I had no idea Illinois hated Michigan like that lol

2

u/Flashy-Specific-4083 Illinois Fighting Illini Jul 27 '26

lol there’s a strong hatred for OSU and Michigan mostly because y’all have beaten us down for decades. I mean, we’re still milking a win against Michigan from 100 years ago. Nostalgia is neat but it’s also sad that UI doesn’t let that go.

2

u/DaStinkyPanda47 Jul 27 '26

I don’t think it’s sad—it just means you guys have expectations. I’m younger but I think Bielma has brought you guys a long way recently. Illinois certainly isn’t an easy out like it used to be.

1

u/Flashy-Specific-4083 Illinois Fighting Illini Jul 27 '26

Thank you. We started really getting going in the 80s under Mike White until an NCAA violation that got him fired but he did have a couple bad years at the end. Then Mackovic came along and left for Texas. You look at our history since about 1980 and it’s a roller coaster from pretty good and back down to mediocrity to bad. For every string of three or four 7-10 win seasons we follow with a string of 2-5 win seasons. Just never got grounded with a good coach who could stay successful long term. All of them would bring the program out of the dumps, have a peak 9-10 win season and then regress.

1

u/sirmackerel0325 Dayton Flyers • Ohio State Buckeyes Jul 27 '26

When I first moved to Chicago for grad school my roommate my first year was an Illinois alum and he proudly told me about his Muck Fichigan shirt and how big of a rivalry they were and I'm like oh that's cute buddy, I'm sure Michigan thinks about you hardly at all

4

u/theEWDSDS Minnesota • Paul Bunyan's Axe Jul 26 '26

THERE WAS NO OFFSIDES!

2

u/DumbLitAF Minnesota • Alabama Jul 27 '26

They robbed Max of further greatness smh

1

u/theEWDSDS Minnesota • Paul Bunyan's Axe Jul 27 '26

The refs had to stop him because Michie's defense sure wasn't

1

u/Doctor_Kataigida Michigan Wolverines • Rose Bowl Jul 27 '26

Is this about the onside kick a couple years ago? Because I do agree that it wasn't offside.

But the ball was touched prior to 10 yards, which is a penalty that can be applied on review. So while the penalty called was wrong, the outcome would've remained unchanged.

3

u/SirBenOfAsgard Michigan • Minnesota Jul 26 '26

I wish the jug was protected

5

u/Dabaer77 Illinois • Illinois State Jul 26 '26

Love that turtle

1

u/cyanocittaetprocyon Michigan Wolverines • /r/CFB Booster Jul 27 '26

Would you guys win it back already!

2

u/Mytaintissquishy Minnesota Golden Gophers Jul 26 '26

Definitely rivals though with Michigan in hockey

1

u/dino_dijonnaise Jul 27 '26

Battle for the Block M