I mean we obviously don't like you and viceversa and that has never changed after 50+ years but our rivalry has cooled a bit lately. What will it take for things to intensify other than Rice to actually pull its weight and bring people to Reliant?

Both teams to be good at the same time. Since 2008, one team has been mediocre and one downright awful (usually alternating) resulting in something not so interesting.

Increase Rice enrollment by ten times and wait a few years?

When will UH or any of our opponents realize when you are as small and diverse (our graduates typically don't continue to live in mama's spare bedroon with 25 miles of campus) as Rice is, we will never fill 70,000 seat stadiums.

The better question is when will UH consistently bring fans in comparison to their size?

(07-07-2013 12:46 PM)Cougar Hippy Wrote:  I mean we obviously don't like you and viceversa and that has never changed after 50+ years but our rivalry has cooled a bit lately. What will it take for things to intensify other than Rice to actually pull its weight and bring people to Reliant?

UH could start by fielding a more competitive baseball team.

(07-07-2013 02:13 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  Increase Rice enrollment by ten times and wait a few years?

When will UH or any of our opponents realize when you are as small and diverse (our graduates typically don't continue to live in mama's spare bedroon with 25 miles of campus) as Rice is, we will never fill 70,000 seat stadiums.

The better question is when will UH consistently bring fans in comparison to their size?

We bring 30k+ to the house (we brought that much to Reliant last year when we were 0-3 with a loss to Texas State) and our attendance is on the rise. There is absolutely no reason why the Bayou Bucket doesn't have at least 40k+ especially if Rice's attendance reports of 20-25k were true.

Your team is getting a lot of hype this season and we play each other in week 3. Both teams can be 2-0 by then. It will be especially huge if you guys catch lightning in a bottle and somehow stop Johnny Football.

(07-07-2013 03:23 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  UH could start by fielding a more competitive baseball team.

Football is what drives the bus and what most care about. That being said, we fielded a Top 25 baseball team this past season and the entire team returns.

(07-07-2013 04:00 PM)Cougar Hippy Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 02:13 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  The better question is when will UH consistently bring fans in comparison to their size?

We bring 30k+ to the house (we brought that much to Reliant last year when we were 0-3 with a loss to Texas State) and our attendance is on the rise. There is absolutely no reason why the Bayou Bucket doesn't have at least 40k+ especially if Rice's attendance reports of 20-25k were true.

So if you bring 3/4 of your enrollment and we bring 5 times our enrollment you'll be happy?

I realize math is hard for SOME UH fans, (what would a rivalry thread be without a hint of smack) but you just stated the problems both of our Universities face.

We are small, and your people (in general) don't care.

Want a different metric? You bring about 20% of your local alumni base, and you want us to bring 200%.

3/4 of our enrollment would be 4k.

(07-07-2013 04:06 PM)Cougar Hippy Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 03:23 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  UH could start by fielding a more competitive baseball team.

Football is what drives the bus and what most care about. That being said, we fielded a Top 25 baseball team this past season and the entire team returns.

??? Yes, you guys were top 25 in the polls for a couple weeks during the first half of the season, but ended the year well out of the Top 50 by any poll or measurement.

(07-07-2013 04:00 PM)Cougar Hippy Wrote:  We bring 30k+ to the house (we brought that much to Reliant last year when we were 0-3 with a loss to Texas State) and our attendance is on the rise. There is absolutely no reason why the Bayou Bucket doesn't have at least 40k+ especially if Rice's attendance reports of 20-25k were true.

Your team is getting a lot of hype this season and we play each other in week 3. Both teams can be 2-0 by then. It will be especially huge if you guys catch lightning in a bottle and somehow stop Johnny Football.

Did you think your taunting post would end well?

Box score for the 2012 Bayou Bucket says attendance was 32,718, so I think your claim of 30,000 Coogs is inflated. I was there, and Rice showed well for a weary fan base that was expecting more of a trainwreck season than the mid-season power surge that actually happened. I couldn't not attend, but I bought my tickets on Craigslist at the last minute from a UH student. I'll leave you to draw conclusions.

I'll give you 20,000+ Coogs in 2012 and agree that Rice should put that many in the seats, too, especially for the expectations for this season.

http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-footbl/...ice05.html

Why are yall responding to this troll?

Trying to hold UH and Rice to the same standards is like comparing a Clydesdale to a Quarter Horse. One's better at this, the other at that.

(07-07-2013 06:06 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Why are yall responding to this troll?

Trying to hold UH and Rice to the same standards is like comparing a Clydesdale to a Quarter Horse. One's better at this, the other at that.

Because I'm from a different school with a somewhat different opinion, I'm a troll? We have one of the oldest rivalries in College Football and I want to feel the hate.

I swear, I'm really trying hard--I mean, really, really trying hard--not to buy into the "UH students/alums are intellectually inferior losers" stereotype. Please don't make it harder for me, Hippy.

(07-07-2013 06:55 PM)Barrett Wrote:  I swear, I'm really trying hard--I mean, really, really trying hard--not to buy into the "UH students/alums are intellectually inferior losers" stereotype. Please don't make it harder for me, Hippy.

And I'm trying to not buy into the "Rice students/fans/alumns" aren't snooty, stuck-up rich kids with a nauseating sense of entitlement.

Please don't make it harder for me Barrett.



Now let's get back on topic. What can be done to intensify this rivalry?

(07-07-2013 06:47 PM)Cougar Hippy Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 06:06 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Why are yall responding to this troll?

Trying to hold UH and Rice to the same standards is like comparing a Clydesdale to a Quarter Horse. One's better at this, the other at that.

Because I'm from a different school with a somewhat different opinion, I'm a troll? We have one of the oldest rivalries in College Football and I want to feel the hate.

FWIW, you didn't strike me as a troll. I thought you asked a pertinent question and you sounded sincere. Let's start with the fact that Rice and UH are in a pro football town. Even if both football teams are having good seasons, the Texans get the media spotlight. So we're both second fiddles. The math analyses address Rice's basic problem. We don't have a large alumni base. On the other hand, UH has a much larger alumni base but still fails to draw large crowds to football games. Here's a radical notion -- why don't our athletic departments cooperate to frame the Bayou Bucket as an "all-Houston area" event? In every quarter the Armed Forces Bowl recognized veterans from a different service. Schtick? Not really, not if your know what it takes to handle four or five years in the military, much less a war. I'm pulling this idea out of the air, but here goes. In one quarter the Bayou Bucket honors high school teachers. In another quarter the Bayou Bucket honors policemen and firemen. In another quarter the Bayou Bucket honors WW2, Korean War and Vietnam War vets. The next quarter honors GWOT vets. I'm suggesting that we don't frame the Bayou Bucket solely as a college rivalry. That hasn't paid off at the boz office. Other ideas to juice the crowd: ask Houston's very gine restaurants to set up stalls to hawk their specialties. Also, see if you can get ZZ Top will jam with the MOB at half-time. Think this might get 60K into Reliant?

I guess we'll just both have to accept that there is some truth in stereotypes, Hippy.

(07-07-2013 07:07 PM)Cougar Hippy Wrote:  And I'm trying to not buy into the "Rice students/fans/alumns" aren't snooty, stuck-up rich kids with a nauseating sense of entitlement.

It would seem you have confused the Rice stereotype with the SMU stereotype.

SMU students/fans/alumns in general are far more likely to be in your words "snooty, stuck-up rich kids with a nauseating sense of entitlement."

The more accurate Rice stereotype would be 'weird, quirky intellectual kids who were often not the most popular growing up, not the most athletically interested or oriented to the exclusion of other life interests and hobbies, and pretty much middle-class in stature and life outlook, though many used their Rice degree to achieve a significant upward mobility while mostly retaining their level-headed and realistic life outlook.'

The average Rice student is, upon encountering, actually fairly non-threatening, ordinary and pedestrian, just more keenly intellectual and highly academically motivated.

My experience from reading many boards from large and small schools across the nation is that those alumns and fans who root for the Blue and Gray (ie, Rice- those are our colors, after all) and care to post on a public fan forum would appear to be somewhat more even-handed than the average college sports fan, and that seems to be putting it mildly.

To summarize, then:

Rice = geeky, pretty much
SMU = rich kids, pretty much
UH = hit or miss, as specified in the comments above and below this one on percentage of attendance vs actual student populations, respectively.

(07-07-2013 07:07 PM)Cougar Hippy Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 06:55 PM)Barrett Wrote:  I swear, I'm really trying hard--I mean, really, really trying hard--not to buy into the "UH students/alums are intellectually inferior losers" stereotype. Please don't make it harder for me, Hippy.

And I'm trying to not buy into the "Rice students/fans/alumns" aren't snooty, stuck-up rich kids with a nauseating sense of entitlement.

Please don't make it harder for me Barrett.



Now let's get back on topic. What can be done to intensify this rivalry?

I'm not going to weigh in on the topic just now, but I do have one thing to say:

Getting into Rice is contingent upon having the proper academic qualifications, period; wealth does not factor into it. What's more, if one gets into Rice, the school essentially guarantees that the tuition will get paid somehow. That is what makes Rice one of the best and most equitable schools in the world.

Anyone who says that he/she didn't go to Rice because he/she couldn't afford it is lying more often than not.

Just thought I would clear that up.

(07-07-2013 10:19 PM)Wiessman Wrote:  Getting into Rice is contingent upon having the proper academic qualifications, period; wealth does not factor into it. What's more, if one gets into Rice, the school essentially guarantees that the tuition will get paid somehow. That is what makes Rice one of the best and most equitable schools in the world.

Anyone who says that he/she didn't go to Rice because he/she couldn't afford it is lying more often than not.

Just thought I would clear that up.

---and getting into UH is contingent upon...what? (couldn't resist)

(07-07-2013 10:35 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 10:19 PM)Wiessman Wrote:  Getting into Rice is contingent upon having the proper academic qualifications, period; wealth does not factor into it. What's more, if one gets into Rice, the school essentially guarantees that the tuition will get paid somehow. That is what makes Rice one of the best and most equitable schools in the world.

Anyone who says that he/she didn't go to Rice because he/she couldn't afford it is lying more often than not.

Just thought I would clear that up.

---and getting into UH is contingent upon...what? (couldn't resist)

Being tier 1, of course.

(07-07-2013 10:35 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 10:19 PM)Wiessman Wrote:  Getting into Rice is contingent upon having the proper academic qualifications, period; wealth does not factor into it. What's more, if one gets into Rice, the school essentially guarantees that the tuition will get paid somehow. That is what makes Rice one of the best and most equitable schools in the world.

Anyone who says that he/she didn't go to Rice because he/she couldn't afford it is lying more often than not.

Just thought I would clear that up.

---and getting into UH is contingent upon...what? (couldn't resist)

Filling out the paperwork.