The Official 'Is Rutgers a rival?' thread

[SUFaninNJ]

I don't have a problem with BC being our rival. Or Pitt for that matter. IMHO it's the closest to a rival we have in football. I've never thought of RU as a rival and doubt that I ever well. I grew up in Syracuse but have lived in NJ during their rise to mediocrity. Schiano is/was a douche, but he's not their coach anymore. We have a new coach, they have a new coach, so bringing up the coaches hate for each other is irrelevant. We may have lost a few average recruits to them for a couple of years, but those years, we were losing good recruits to everyone. If people want to view them as a rival, that's their prerogative. I just don't happen to agree. I still look at them with pity, not as an equal. That being said, I'd much rather this thread go back to poking fun at Rutgers rather than trying to convince others that your idea of a rival is the correct one.

 

[Ky Je]

Schiano is/was a douche, but he's not their coach anymore. We have a new coach, they have a new coach, so bringing up the coaches hate for each other is irrelevant. We may have lost a few average recruits to them for a couple of years, but those years, we were losing good recruits to everyone.

Thats fine, but if were discounting teams that don't have the players and or coaches that aren't currently with said team then we need to stop drawing up comparisons to the G-town and other past rivalries(bball or football) because the players/coaches that started the rivalry moved on. Secondly its not like we won't be going against them for recruits since with out new HC/their new HC, getting us back on top means having a decent pull out of NJ, we don't need to get all of the top 10 players every year but I don't see how we can get back to where we want to be if we can only snag players in top the 30 area.

 

[HtownOrange]

When did we last play Rutgers? When are they next on our schedule? They are not a rival. They are a school that we message board posters like to laugh at (as does most of CFBdom).

Could they have become a rival? Possibly
Will they become a rival? Not if we don't play regularly and that is not likely to happen any time soon.
Do we have a rivalry? Not at this time, though BC may work towards that end. Pitt and SU simply don't hate each other, we would need tight games where we piss in each others' Cherrios. NCState has potential.
Do I want a rivalry with Rutgers? No. Even in our worst period and their best period, we split the games. This was a game we circled as an auto win, nothing more.

Can we bash Rutgers for making Rutgeresque mistakes? You bet!

 

[TexanMark]

No SU fan with any historical knowledge would ever consider Rutgers to be a rival in any sport. End of discussion.

Thank you for insulting me...

Rutgers is a rival to me because: I loathe their fans, they are close by, received a lifeline due to having cable boxes and we recruit their area...a lot of arrogance here with folks trying to force their opinion down the throats of others.

 

[Cuse'91]

No SU fan with any historical knowledge would ever consider Rutgers to be a rival in any sport. End of discussion.

You mean how PennSt must feel about us in football?

 

[CousCuse]

Louisville .

 

[TexanMark]

Louisville .

More so in Hoops...Football I consider them more of a friendly rival.

 

[CousCuse]

More so in Hoops...Football I consider them more of a friendly rival.

They are still real mad from 2012 when we ruined their great season.

 

[cuseguy]

Thank you for insulting me... Rutgers is a rival to me because: I loathe their fans, they are close by, received a lifeline due to having cable boxes and we recruit their area...a lot of arrogance here with folks trying to force their opinion down the throats of others.

There's no sense in trying to argue our point, Mark.

But we need to stick together.

 

[Eric15]

No SU fan with any historical knowledge would ever consider Rutgers to be a rival in any sport. End of discussion.

Would fans with historical knowledge of SU football consider Penn State to be our rival? Because our all-time series with them is 43-23-5 PSU, and our all-time series with Rutgers is 30-12-1 Cuse. In other words, very comparable in terms of one side dominating.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Thats fine, but if were discounting teams that don't have the players and or coaches that aren't currently with said team then we need to stop drawing up comparisons to the G-town and other past rivalries(bball or football) because the players/coaches that started the rivalry moved on. Secondly its not like we won't be going against them for recruits since with out new HC/their new HC, getting us back on top means having a decent pull out of NJ, we don't need to get all of the top 10 players every year but I don't see how we can get back to where we want to be if we can only snag players in top the 30 area.

I commented on the coaches because someone brought it up earlier. Even though I never liked Schiano, him rolling his eyes at Gerg during a handshake is hardly rivalry worthy. They don't have any players in my mind that I ever viewed as a villain. Rice to RU was self inflicted, not anything that they particularly did to get him. We will continue to recruit NJ, just like we always have. But we're not just going up against RU for those players, we're going against PSU, MD, UM, ND, etc. I'd hardly say that they are all our rivals. We rarely if ever got more than a handful of players out of NJ's top 30. Some years more, some less. As far as D3 not having any meaningful games, Ithaca went to 2 National Championship games in football while I was there, I'd say they were meaningful. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Like I said before, I'd rather get back to the purpose of this thread, Rutgers inability to get out of their own way and the comedy that ensues.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Would fans with historical knowledge of SU football consider Penn State to be our rival? Because our all-time series with them is 43-23-5 PSU, and our all-time series with Rutgers is 30-12-1 Cuse. In other words, very comparable in terms of one side dominating.

Penn State was once our rival, they are not anymore. I don't believe anyone has argued that they are currently SU's rival in football.

 

[storange]

You mean how PennSt must feel about us in football?

You mean the school that deserved the death penalty but instead had penalties reduced.

 

[Eric15]

Penn State was once our rival, they are not anymore. I don't believe anyone has argued that they are currently SU's rival in football.

When were they our rival? We won the first 10 games of the series (in the Depression era). Post-1970 they beat us 21 out of 23 times.

 

[Ky Je]

I commented on the coaches because someone brought it up earlier. Even though I never liked Schiano, him rolling his eyes at Gerg during a handshake is hardly rivalry worthy. They don't have any players in my mind that I ever viewed as a villain. Rice to RU was self inflicted, not anything that they particularly did to get him. We will continue to recruit NJ, just like we always have. But we're not just going up against RU for those players, we're going against PSU, MD, UM, ND, etc. I'd hardly say that they are all our rivals. We rarely if ever got more than a handful of players out of NJ's top 30. Some years more, some less. As far as D3 not having any meaningful games, Ithaca went to 2 National Championship games in football while I was there, I'd say they were meaningful. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Like I said before, I'd rather get back to the purpose of this thread, Rutgers inability to get out of their own way and the comedy that ensues.

What I meant with the D3 example was there are plenty of teams that never sniff a championship game and they don't have the option of going to bowl games, but I guarantee you that the bottom feeders of D2/3 leagues have schools that they consider rivals. Another example of this would be HS FB there plenty of schools that get 1 or two wins a year but the residents all come out for the thanksgiving day game to beat the school thats the town over from them. These same teams never play for meaningful game or rarely do, but those rivalries can be just as heated as a bosco/bergen game. I know we're a little further then a town a way from RU but they do have enough overlapping areas to draw similarities. As for Schiano, we both know that his role as the villain didn't just come from a roll of the eye, its came from his recruiting tactics that he used against us.

 

[Ky Je]

You mean the school that deserved the death penalty but instead had penalties reduced.

I still think USC got hit harder then they did, one had a an agent who actively tried to talk their players into leaving early, behind the schools back, none the less. The other diminished the validity that they had a monster running loose on their campus for 3 decades and helped keep that truth in the dark.

 

[storange]

I still think USC got hit harder then they did, one had a an agent who actively tried to talk their players into leaving early, behind the schools back, none the less. The other diminished the validity that they had a monster running loose on their campus for 3 decades and helped keep that truth in the dark.

All things being relative, so did our hoops program.

 

[dollarbill44]

No SU fan with any historical knowledge would ever consider Rutgers to be a rival in any sport. End of discussion.

We want to criticize RU fans for thinking history started in 2004, but many on here think history ended in 2001.
Btw, this is a cowardly debate tactic. Rather than counter any argument or fact with real points of your own, you have reduced yourself to trying to discredit others through name-calling. There are plenty of people on this thread with a very strong knowledge of SU football history that have a different opinion than you. I am well-aware of SU's history. I am aware that there have been dark periods in SU's history - in fact, about 2/3rds of the last 45 years might fit the bill. I am also of the opinion that Syracuse-Rutgers had become a football rivalry, but it isn't anymore, but only because we don't play them. All of the other conditions still exist.

 

[dollarbill44]

Even in our worst period and their best period, we split the games.

Either your definition of "split" is different from most or our worst period doesn't include GRob. Either way, something doesn't fit.

 

[Townie72]

my criteria seems to fall in line with others who say they are a Rival or the closest thing we've had to one in awhile. Rivalries have hate and vitriol infused in them, it's not just about records or the competitiveness of games during certain time periods. Its born when both fan bases have a deep disdain/hatred for each other. We share the same recruiting grounds, I don't care of they don't get the cream of the crop from Jersey because that forces them lower and we've basically been shut down with any NJ players with D1 offers(besides ourselves) for too long. We have a large fan/aluni base who were born in NJ or that live there currently and we both have a lot of alumnus that work in the city.


We haven't played them since the 2012 season and arguable the longest and most active thread on our board is about a school that we have played in 3 seasons and is no longer in our conference. I think the Georgetown not being our football rival is a perfect example of rivalries not existing in multiple sports from the same two Universities. I think it would do us good to try to make this into something bigger then it was/is. It might help reinvigorate our fan base.

Suggesting that a pathetic athletic program like Rutgers is our rival, is an insult to the SU athletic program.

If you are doing it, you need to stop as this has the potential to injure SU.

 

[Townie72]

You mean how PennSt must feel about us in football?

That's correct.

Oh by the way, guess who the Rutgers fans now say their current rival is?

It's Penn State.

The Penn State fans ought to scoff at that one. Just like we should have.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

When were they our rival? We won the first 10 games of the series (in the Depression era). Post-1970 they beat us 21 out of 23 times.

I don't have the desire to look up the numbers (feel free if you'd like to) but my guess would be that they were our rival in the 40 or so years that you omitted from your post. FWIW, they have never been a rival during my tenure as a fan.

 

[Townie72]

Thank you for insulting me...

Rutgers is a rival to me because: I loathe their fans, they are close by, received a lifeline due to having cable boxes and we recruit their area...a lot of arrogance here with folks trying to force their opinion down the throats of others.

And yet there has never been a single meaningful game played between the two schools.

Can you say the same about Texas and Texas A&M. Or Nebraska and Oklahoma. Or Oklahoma and Oklahoma State? or any actual rivalry.

Not liking a fan base doesn't seem to be enough.

When the Duke fans chant "We are not your Rivals" at maryland, what is it you think they are saying?

 

[Ky Je]

And yet there has never been a single meaningful game played between the two schools.

Can you say the same about Texas and Texas A&M. Or Nebraska and Oklahoma. Or Oklahoma and Oklahoma State? or any actual rivalry.

Not liking a fan base doesn't seem to be enough.

When the Duke fans chant "We are not your Rivals" at maryland, what is it you think they are saying?

you keep saying not one meaningful game but others have pointed out that we lost to them multiple times when we would've gone to major bowl game if we had beaten them.

 

[cuseguy]

And yet there has never been a single meaningful game played between the two schools. Can you say the same about Texas and Texas A&M. Or Nebraska and Oklahoma. Or Oklahoma and Oklahoma State? or any actual rivalry. Not liking a fan base doesn't seem to be enough. When the Duke fans chant "We are not your Rivals" at maryland, what is it you think they are saying?

Many of us never tried to compare it to those rivalries. Those rivalries are in a completely different league.

My point all along was that SU-Rutgers and SU-UConn were in the early stages of becoming a rivalry. We were vying for many of the same recruits (and to some degree, we still are) and competing for bragging rights in the tri-state area.

If the Big East had continued, I have no doubt that those matchups would have grown into decent rivalries.