After reading the MU-ND Rivalry thread in the Hanging at the Al forum, I was thinking about what makes a good rivalry. Here are some components of a good/great rivalry, tell me what you all think.
1)
It MUST be competitive. The rivalry should have close games. Streaks are possible, but if one team wins too often it becomes lopsided. Lopsided rivalries only hold importance to the loosing team, the winning team will stop seeing it as a rivalry.
2)
The coaches/team must take it personally. When I was in school, the KO story about Bucky T'ing him up after he was ejected from a game in Madison was priceless, and to the students that incident took the game to another level. Same can be said for Deane dancing on the floor in Louisville. Jarrad Odle, who was the starting power forward on the IU Final Four team a few years back, had ALWAYS wanted to go to Purdue. During his recruitment before he committed to Purdue, Bobby Knight asked him to just come to Bloomington for a visit and if he didn't like IU he could always go to Purdue. Keady found out about the visit and told Odle he didn't want anyone on his team that would even consider playing for Bobby Knight at IU. NOW THAT'S A RIVALRY! If the coaches don't show the game's important the fans wont.
3)
The fans take it to the next level. If the fans don't match the teams intensity, then the rivalry will go unnoticed and will flame out. The fans will stoke the flames of the rivalry for years to come. I hate to use another Indiana reference, but Wabash and DePauw are two small Indiana colleges that just plain HATE each other. It's an intense rivalry in every sport they play against each other. In playing for the Monon Bell during football season, the schools have tried to steal the bell back after loosing it. Sports Illustrated even named one of the pranks to steal the bell one of the five greatest all-time rivalry pranks (
December 12, 2005, p. 36).
You can read more about the rivalry here. There was also a prank played by Maryland on the Duke Cameron Crazies.
