Oso planning to go pro
Marquette v Wisconsin has to be on here. It's a joke that it isn't. Top-10 team travels to play the instate rival that upset them at home a year ago? One of the best non-conference rivalries in college basketball? Ridiculous that it isn't included.
We haven't made the NIT in three straight years. We have no right to be in any Top 50 Non-conference games. We need to start winning consistently if we want to make these types of lists.
I want to believe that but, truthfully, no one who isn't a Marquette or Wisco fan cares about the Marquette-Wisco game.
Disagree completely. Honestly, there aren't a ton of meaningful, annual non-conference rivalries. Louisville/Kentucky, Syracuse/Georgetown, Cincinnati/Xavier, Indiana/Kentucky...it's not long before you get to the likes of Illinois/Missouri, and we're certainly a better rivalry than that.The reality is there aren't that many marquee non-conference rivalries. We may not be top-5, but we certainly aren't far off. And again, I'm talking actually, existent rivalries, not just the "Villanova and Virginia will be a good game this year, let's call it a rivalry."If you disagree, by all means list 10-15 bigger non conference rivalries. Even list 5. There aren't as many big ones as you might think, most big rivalries are in conference clashes.
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
I guess we just define "best" differently. I was looking at it from the standpoint of "casual fans will want to watch this game." IMO, there just aren't very many of those games. There are the handful that you mentioned and then a significant drop to the next tier, most of which are based primarily on fanhood. We're MU fans so we're biased. MU-UW is easily the biggest non-conf game for us fans every single season. Does that mean it's a better rivalry than Temple-Nova, Utah-BYU or Iowa-Iowa State? To a non-partisan fan, probably not (unless both teams are highly ranked).Sure, I'll admit Marquette-Wisconsin is one of the top 15 non-conference rivalries in college basketball...but Lynn Dickey is also one of the top 5 Packers' QBs of all time. It's all relative.