Just an ESPN article I read this morning about the "Ten rivalry games we want to see" written by Ted Miller. The NIU v. Ball St. 'Bronze Stalk' was mentioned... "Rivalry games are cool, period. No, they all can't have Jeweled Shillelaghs or Paul Bunyan Axes or Victory Bells, nor are they all nationally relevant -- Ball State and Northern Illinois play for the Bronze Stalk -- but they enrich the college football tapestry." So though it sounds like an insult, it's not. Who would honestly have even thought our rivalry would even be mentioned in this article. Plus it's saying that even though we don't get millions of viewers for our game against them, it's still apart of what makes the college football world special (compared to UConn trying to create the most random rivalry with UCF).

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_...ant-to-see

(06-09-2015 09:14 AM)4PhaseDelta Wrote:  Just an ESPN article I read this morning about the "Ten rivalry games we want to see" written by Ted Miller. The NIU v. Ball St. 'Bronze Stalk' was mentioned... "Rivalry games are cool, period. No, they all can't have Jeweled Shillelaghs or Paul Bunyan Axes or Victory Bells, nor are they all nationally relevant -- Ball State and Northern Illinois play for the Bronze Stalk -- but they enrich the college football tapestry." So though it sounds like an insult, it's not. Who would honestly have even thought our rivalry would even be mentioned in this article. Plus it's saying that even though we don't get millions of viewers for our game against them, it's still apart of what makes the college football world special (compared to UConn trying to create the most random rivalry with UCF).

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_...ant-to-see

I love how our games with Ball State "enrich the college football tapestry."

I now want to run out to JoAnn Fabrics to shop for my next project. I have always dreamed of enriching some tapestry!

The author was saying NIU and Ball State is not relevant.

Greatest trophy on the planet

(06-09-2015 11:59 AM)HuskieRak Wrote:  Greatest trophy on the planet

Until the annual "Row the Boat the Hard Way" trophy is established between NIU and WMU!

Other than UT not being our rival...any reason we don't start a trophy game with them seeing as that it's essentially been the de-facto MAC West title game for the better half of the last decade? I know their natural "rival" is BG but many schools usually play for more than 1 trophy per year.

(06-09-2015 12:25 PM)NIUHuskie4life Wrote:  Other than UT not being our rival...any reason we don't start a trophy game with them seeing as that it's essentially been the de-facto MAC West title game for the better half of the last decade? I know their natural "rival" is BG but many schools usually play for more than 1 trophy per year.

You said it yourself, NIU and Toledo already play for a trophy every season.