What exactly makes a rivalry?


Journalist

Journalist

Listen up maggots! And that's an order!
Just piggybacking off the foolishness that came out of the UAPB rival thread ...

In your opinion, what makes a rivalry essentially a rivalry. PLEASE NO TROLLS/SMACK

In my opinion, length of your series/how many times you played has little to do with the series. There are other factors, like proximity of the schools, competitiveness in the programs, etc. A rivalry doesn't last three or four years (see: SU-Alabama State early 2000s) because teams are good for a short period of time. There has to be consistency on both sides, albeit good or bad. Plus, the fans have to be emotionally tied into it. Also, games have to matter for more than bragging rights ... championships.

Let's take Southern for instance.

For the majority of Southern fans, our main rivals are:
1. Grambling State (in-state rival: divided families, SWAC championships won or lost with this game)
2. Jackson State (in-conference rival: equivalent of each other in respective state, passionate fan bases, tradition, SWAC championships won or lost with this game)
3. Florida A&M (longest running nonconference HBCU rivalry: equivalent of each other in respective state, passionate fan bases, tradition, HBCU championships decided on this game; schools/conferences need to work things out to get game back on the schedule more often)

Other games of interest are:
1. Alcorn State (due to proximity to Southern; divided family and the craziness of the games)
2. Tennessee State (old-school rivalry; need to see the game on the schedule more frequently to spark the interest back up)
 
I'm going to say this and I think I'm going to leave this alone.

I don't think you can have a "rivalry" with four or five different teams. I think every team has only ONE real rival. The others are "games of interest" as you say. They may be long-standing or even bitterly intense games of interest, but I still believe in only one true rival.

Carry on ....
 



AAMU & Tuskegee are Bama State rivals. Longevity, split families and proximity are the reasons.


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Ehh well I feel that it should be same-state rivals if it is true that you can only have one...so alcorn /jsu, valley /delta state. This is how it should go. It is kind of a thing that just happens.
 
The majority of these rivalries developed because there were a limited number of teams in these various leagues who were stationed in close proximity to each other, which meant they played each other a bunch.

Distance between the two teams, and number of games played against each other.
 
I do say the Southern-Jackson State game takes on a whole different tenor than that of Southern-Grambling State.

There's an intensity that you can see and feel with Southern-Jackson, while there's like a more family-type atmosphere with Grambling.
 
Southern-JSU is more intense than Alcorn-JSU. JSU peeps look at Alcorn like our little brother. We expect to beat them every year, even if we don't. Southern is more about hate. We talk noise but we don't automatically mark it down as a W. You expect a fight.
 
I agree there has to be some hate or major dislike. Success of both programs with the other both home and away. Regional proximity is important, but I don't think you have to be in the same state. Ohio State/Michigan are major rivals. LSU/Ole Miss is an old school rivarly. It has lost it's lustre as of late because one has not been nearly as successful as the other over the last two years, but they are still rivals.

I will say, to be tried and true Rivals, you have to have that level of hate in ALL things. It could be a pissin' contest between Grambling and Southern and it would draw a crowd.
 
I don't think you can name any specific criteria to make something a rivalry. It can be different depending on the circumstances. But and the end of the day, it has to be about more than just the game. If the teams are 0-10 you still gotta really want to to beat the hell out of them anyway.

I agree, a few competative games doesn't make it a rivalry.
 
SUJagFan said:
I'm going to say this and I think I'm going to leave this alone.

I don't think you can have a "rivalry" with four or five different teams. I think every team has only ONE real rival. The others are "games of interest" as you say. They may be long-standing or even bitterly intense games of interest, but I still believe in only one true rival.

Carry on ....
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm only 32, so I don't have the same historical perspective as some of our more seasonsed posters. All I have to go off of is what I learned and experienced. I don't hate Jackson State, that is more a band rivalry to me anyway.

But Grambling.......I was breed to hate them (in a competitive way) from the first second I told my family I was going to Southern. My aunt and younger cousin are Gramblingnites and every year we will have some heated arguments in the month of November. Outside of that, our conversation usually starts off with something like "How's that substandard education working for you", etc.... When we lose the Bayou Classic, I get sick to my stomach and have this overwhelming feeling of despair. I'm on the verge of dropping tears like those white folks you see on tv. The only thing that gets me through the rest of the weekend is Hennessy and constantly reminding myself "At least the band won!"

That is what you call a rivalry and the end their can only be one.
 
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