How many great rivalries have been lost or dulled thanks to conference realignment?

Nebraska-OU is a shell of itself, bye A&M-Texas, so long Kansas-Missouri (a true statewide rivalry for both), see ya Pitt-Penn State (because PSU no longer wanted to schedule them a few years after joining the BiG), etc...

Am I missing any?

Nebraska-Colorado was somewhat of a rivalry. Texas-Arkansas was a decent rivalry. And Pitt-WVU.

In the new Big East, we expect to have several new rivalries and some getting better:

UConn-Rutgers
Navy-Air Force
Louisville-Cincinnati
USF-UCF
SMU-Houston
Boise-BYU

Iowa-Wisconsin is no longer a yearly game.

Missouri-Kansas is likely to disappear.

Louisville - Memphis

Cincinnati-UNC Charlotte. Maybe others don't consider it a rivalry, but I'll never forgive them for throwing stuff at our players on the way out of the arena in the 90's. And I'll never forget the game that our radio announcer got a technical and got kicked out of the arena.

It's worth noting that conference reallignment has enhanced some rivalries: XU-Dayton, ND-Depaul, ND-Marquette, Virginia-Va Tech, Oklahoma-Texas, and LSU-Arkansas come to mind.

And reallignment created some new rivalries that really make a lot of sense: Ohio St - Penn St, Nebraska-Iowa, Nebraska-Minnesota, and Colorado-Utah.

(11-19-2011 11:15 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  It's worth noting that conference reallignment has enhanced some rivalries: XU-Dayton, ND-Depaul, ND-Marquette, Virginia-Va Tech, Oklahoma-Texas, and LSU-Arkansas come to mind.

And reallignment created some new rivalries that really make a lot of sense: Ohio St - Penn St, Nebraska-Iowa, Nebraska-Minnesota, and Colorado-Utah.

Very good point to consider too. Texas A&M-Arkansas and Texas A&M-LSU both have history and tradition and will be yearly games now. Missouri-Arkansas might be decent too if they make it a yearly game. TCU-Baylor is going to be yearly now too.

(11-19-2011 11:15 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  It's worth noting that conference reallignment has enhanced some rivalries: XU-Dayton, ND-Depaul, ND-Marquette, Virginia-Va Tech, Oklahoma-Texas, and LSU-Arkansas come to mind.

And reallignment created some new rivalries that really make a lot of sense: Ohio St - Penn St, Nebraska-Iowa, Nebraska-Minnesota, and Colorado-Utah.

Since when did the latter three become rivalries? Don't they have to play more than one year to create some kind of tradition?

West Virginia-Virginia Tech

(11-19-2011 10:38 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  Nebraska-Colorado was somewhat of a rivalry.

Talk about a reach..............

Only reason why Nebraska fans enjoyed games in Boulder was the easy tix they could always get (i.e. much easier to get Nebraska road game tix most years vs finding one for a home game in Lincoln).

It isn't just rivalries that are going by the wayside, but a lot of exciting games are taking a beating as well. For instance, I can't stand the Gators, but I'll admit that games such as UF-LSU, UF-Bama, UF-Auburn can be a lot of fun to watch. Through expansion to 14 and remaining at 8 conference games, those games will happen way less often. Those matchups will virtually disappear so that fans can see yearly games between UF-Mizzou and UF-Texas A&M

If a rivalry is that important, they should play it out of conference. South Carolina will keep playing Clemson even if there are 10 SEC games just because it is that important to the people of the state.

It's easier for schools in the same state to keep rivalries going. The political pressure applied by fans of both schools make it very important for the politicians reelection chances, and they can force the schools to play. They hold the purse strings for the schools...

(11-19-2011 11:15 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  And reallignment created some new rivalries that really make a lot of sense: Ohio St - Penn St, Nebraska-Iowa, Nebraska-Minnesota, and Colorado-Utah.

No coincidence there that you're mentioning the Big Ten and Pac-12, because they added schools that are a good fit for the conference. Both conferences also took care to preserve their existing rivalries as much as possible. The Big 12 was foolish to destroy the annual NU-OU game.

LSU-TAMU and Arky-Mizzou will be good rivalry games in the SEC.

(11-20-2011 08:45 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(11-19-2011 10:38 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  Nebraska-Colorado was somewhat of a rivalry.

Talk about a reach..............

Only reason why Nebraska fans enjoyed games in Boulder was the easy tix they could always get (i.e. much easier to get Nebraska road game tix most years vs finding one for a home game in Lincoln).

My ex-wife is a Husker and I work for a Colorado alum. My personal experience is that those schools hated each other.

USF v UCF is a great addition to the big east.

(11-20-2011 12:36 AM)Caltex2 Wrote:  

(11-19-2011 11:15 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  It's worth noting that conference reallignment has enhanced some rivalries: XU-Dayton, ND-Depaul, ND-Marquette, Virginia-Va Tech, Oklahoma-Texas, and LSU-Arkansas come to mind.

And reallignment created some new rivalries that really make a lot of sense: Ohio St - Penn St, Nebraska-Iowa, Nebraska-Minnesota, and Colorado-Utah.

Since when did the latter three become rivalries? Don't they have to play more than one year to create some kind of tradition?

It's a cultural thing. From the Iowa side we are very much into taking on Nebraska each and every year. I don't think the Nebraska fans are as much into it yet but give a couple years of their Thanksgiving week game being against Iowa and the fact that culturally the two fan bases are very similiar and it will be a very strong rivalry given some time to mature. You are right though without any games played yet it is still just a rivalry in the making.

I imagine the same goes for Colorado and Utah, culturally mountain states in the west coast conference they are natural rivals in that conference.

The definition of "great" rivalries is really being stretched in this thread.

(11-21-2011 09:43 AM)Hokie4Skins Wrote:  The definition of "great" rivalries is really being stretched in this thread.

Pretty much. The only ones I would put in the 'great' category would be Oklahoma/Nebraska and Texas/aTm.

(11-21-2011 09:43 AM)Hokie4Skins Wrote:  The definition of "great" rivalries is really being stretched in this thread.

Yup. If you go by how many times a game has been played or by when the first game in the "series" was played, here are the games that have been lost in the past few years:

Missouri
Illinois
Oklahoma
Iowa State
Nebraska
Kansas

Nebraska
Missouri
Iowa State
Kansas
Oklahoma

Texas A&M
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor

West Virginia
Virginia Tech
Pittsburgh

BYU/Utah are still playing, Texas A&M/Arkansas looks to be restarting, there's been no word on Pitt/WVU, so who knows how many of these will actually be lost. I don't think expansion has ruined "so many great rivalries" as much as it's blown up the old Big 8 ones...