No, not some artificial BS "rivalry". I mean one that grown organically. If Syracuse and Rutgers did not have decades of history prior to the past 15 years, then perhaps a rivalry could have grown. And that is probably why so many of the younger fans consider it a rivalry. But the old timers have no respect for Rutgers, and that is one of the critical ingredients of a rivalry.
orangefog is on point today
I'll go one further and say that we had a better chance of developing a rivalry with UConn:
- Existing BB rivalry (bigger than GTown for some fans).
- No real FB history between the teams to bias anyone until they upgraded to D-1.
- Proximity and dueling claims to NYC fans/recruits.
- Internet jagoffs on each side spewing hatred. Actual people interacting too.
- SU fans hated that they got into a BCS conference without paying their dues while UConn fans hate our arrogance.
- UConn held up their end on the field, winning most of the games. Downtime, blah blah blah, but they got it done while we are left with excuses.
- Big games between the two are lacking, but UConn made a BCS bowl after beating us and finishing one game ahead that season (in a 3-way tie for BE title).
Now, after their big season, UConn regressed to where you'd expect them to be while SU began to rebuild to mediocrity. But we got out of the conference and they didn't, so the rivalry ended before becoming full-blown. Had the teams remained in the same conference (especially if UConn was able to string together some winning seasons and leverage their hoops success to increase their FB profile), this had an excellent chance of
developing into something bigger - I stress that it wasn't there yet as I and many weren't particularly enthused about them as our big game.
And you know that Diaco would've made up a trophy with a dog chasing an orange ball instead of that Civil Conflict monstrosity if our series was continuing.