I am watching the Astros v Rangers and really this should be a rivalry series but it isn’t. I don’t hate the Rangers. I hate the Dodgers, I hate the Yankees, I dislike the Cardinals, I dislike the A’s. But the Rangers? More or less irrelevant to me.
That also applies to the Mavericks and SMU. SMU annoys me but I don’t hate them. The Mavs? Mark Cuban is weird but the Mavs don’t illicit any strong feelings one way or another.
Houston v Dallas should be right up there with LA v San Fran or NY v Boston. But there isn’t any passion for any sports rivalry with Dallas.
Hate the NFL doesn’t push Houston and Dallas to play each other yearly as that’s how to maximize the rivalry
Honestly - SMU is a church affiliated private school so the masses don’t go there so there isn’t a natural rivalry if someone like UT was in Dallas cause it’s a state school
Mavs have been up and down since time began and the way the NBA has changed - it’s hard to get involved anyway. That’s the one sport where rivalries mean nothing
As for the rangers - we were in opposite leagues for so there was no reason. The time rivalry had more punch when interleague played started -
Texans and Dallas are also in opposite “leagues”. I agree tho out of all the sports down in this region that rivalry would generate the most attention. It sucks that the nfl is super traditional in the sense that keep the merged leagues separate. With obviously the rotating of different league divisions playing one another every 4 years. We have zero regional rivalry with the colts, jags, or Titans(expect they are the old Houston franchise). Dallas, kc, saints, and Houston would be pretty fun. But they would never break up the nfc East.
SMU is a church affiliated school in that it does have the Perkins School of Theology. However, the remainder of the university is secular. Surprisingly, USC was also founded in affiliation with the Methodist church in 1880.
“USC’s multifaceted relationship with religion goes back to its beginnings in 1880, when it was founded in affiliation with the Methodist Church by three men: a Protestant, an Irish Catholic and a rabbi. (No, they didn’t walk into a bar—they joined together to donate the land upon which USC was built.) USC became a completely secular school in 1957, but spirituality on campus has deepened.”
A school doesn’t need to be a state school to have deep rivalries. And public schools can have rivalries with private and even church affiliated schools. Look at Duke and both UNC and NC St, or Wake Forest and both UNC and NC St.
Not only that, but privates USC and Notre Dame have probably the oldest “intersectional” rivalry in the country, dating all the way back to the 1920s and Knute Rockne.