Is Utah and Colorado an actual rivalry? Colorado was willing to bolt them just 2 weeks ago. I have not seen them be real rivals.
I didn’t know about KState/Colorado, but in my pod they are in a good mix with several strong programs, so, it should be fine. They are a prodigal son. They don’t deserve to be customized around LMAO
Colorado and Utah have player 69 times (nice) since 1903. It even has the name of “rumble in the rockies.”
Then Utah/BYU with Cincinnati/West Virginia and ISU/Colorado with Kansas/Kansas State
Fixed
So for reference these are the official rivalries:
Arizona-Arizona State Duel in the Desert Territorial Cup 96 1899
Arizona-Texas Tech 33 1932
Baylor–TCU The Revivalry 117 1899
Baylor–Texas Tech Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Shootout 80 1929
BYU-Utah Holy War Beehive Boot 101 1896
Cincinnati–UCF 8 2015
Cincinnati–West Virginia 20 1921
Colorado-Utah Rumble in the Rockies 69 1903
Colorado–Kansas State 66 1912
Houston–Texas Tech 34 1951
Iowa State–Kansas State Farmageddon 105 1917
Kansas–Kansas State Sunflower Showdown Governor’s Cup 119
TCU–Texas Tech The West Texas Championship The Saddle Trophy 64 1926
Jesus.
It wasn’t a conference rivalry until this last decade, and it wasn’t much of a rivalry considering I never even heard of it promoted on Pac12 boards or station, and the fact Utah kicked butt in football and Colorado mostly sucked.
Simply fact is very few scenarios work even close to ideally. None work entirely ideally.
A lot of these rivalries existed in 10-12 team leagues. There’s simply no way to replicate schedules from a time when every team played every team every year when the schedule has to accommodate 16 to 20 to 24 programs.
As tribute, I will sacrifice the Arizona/ASU alliance. Haha
THANK YOU! That’s exactly what I’ve been saying.
Which means compromise. These 3-4-5 rival things are for the birds. There’s simply no way to create a pod or division system for 16-20 teams multiple multiple regions and time zones who just so happen to play each other for a long time.
Like are we really arguing Colorado And Iowa State are rivals?
Like I said, I’m new to the ways of the Big12, but rivals are typically geographic or because they compete for the conference yearly or both. Not sure when Colorado and ISU were ever either of those, same Colorado/Utah, but that’s beyond me.
My way of thinking, you get to claim 2 rivalries. The rest will be part of the rotation. Such is the way of the new world. Unless you’re willing to play 15 conference games in football (until it’s 19), there’s literally no way except to prioritize and compromise.
So based on just the level of importance these are the rivalries I would maintain with no particular order:
Arizona-Arizona State Duel in the Desert Territorial Cup 96 1899
Arizona-Texas Tech 33 1932
Baylor–TCU The Revivalry 117 1899
Baylor–Texas Tech Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Shootout 80 1929
BYU-Utah Holy War Beehive Boot 101 1896
Cincinnati–West Virginia 20 1921
Colorado–Kansas State 66 1912
Houston–Texas Tech 34 1951
Iowa State–Kansas State Farmageddon 105 1917
Kansas–Kansas State Sunflower Showdown Governor’s Cup 119
TCU–Texas Tech The West Texas Championship The Saddle Trophy 64 1926
So you have Tech vs TCU with a trophy and Tech vs Houston as must haves. So those 3 teams at a minimum would have to share a pod with someone, possibly UCF. Id say Arizona but you have to give up your rivalry with ASU.
Cincy and WVU have to be together they could be paired with OSU and maybe Baylor.
Kansas, Colorado, K St., and Iowa obviously.
Then UTAH and BYU, but you run into having Arizona and ASU in the same place as them.
Seems like the only way you can oblige all those is 2 divisions of 8, you play your division (7 games) and half the other (4 games) for a total of 11 games, plus one Non-conference game yearly. Every 2 years you’ve played everyone, every 4 years you’ve played everyone Home/Home.
For basketball you play your division 2x (14 games) and other division 1x (8 games) for a total of 22 Conference games, every two years you play everyone Home/Home. Add one 8-team Non-Conference Classic or two 4-team, plus 3-5 regional/rivalry type Non-conference games and there’s your 30, plus Conference Tournament, plus Postseason Tournament.
Ok, so, 16-Team Division
North
BYU
Cincinnati
Colorado
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Utah
West Virginia
South
Arizona
Arizona State
Baylor
Houston
Oklahoma State
TCU
Tech
UCF
Travel seems pretty balanced with each having to head East once with WVU and UCF. I think South is loaded in both Football and Basketball, but, it does have some strong football in North assuming Utah and Cincinnati pull their weight and Colorado improves.
It maintains geographic and historic rivalries for the most part.
And you play everyone every 2 years maximum in both sport.
Top-2 Division play in Football Conference Playoff.
Top-6 Division seeded for Conference Basketball Tournament, division winners get Byes first round.
Why you think…
I like it! But would you only want one OCC game in football? Theoretically you could do your 7 and play 2 from the other division. That would mean you would play every team every 4 years. Not bad, but it would take 8 years to have the them come to your stadium and go to theirs.
Bring it on!
Nah thats honestly a terrible setup for us. You would need at a minimum two Texas schools in each division.
Why, UH counts as two Texas schools. Bring it on, they wanna give us the east. Bring it
They wanna cater the southwest Texas vs rockies go ahead, coogs arent scared to take on the east.
If 12 is the limit, no way around it. And have you seen that division? That’s murderers row if everyone is playing well.
Arizona is the weakest of the bench recently, and had the top-ranked recruiting class of any of our new Big12 brothers in 2023, and, are currently the top-ranked class for 2024.
Only other option is 2 of the 8 every year; so complete cycle every 4 years, complete Home/Home every 8? That feels too stretched, but is doable.
Maybe stop expansion at Pittsburgh and Louisville and add them North/South respectively, then do Division plus 3 where it’s a complete cycle every 3 and complete HH cycle every 6.
And it separates Colorado from Utah and ISU and KSU it’s three main rivals.
Ya it’s a a conundrum. You could do 10 conference games 2 have to be against Texas teams so the north gets exposure to Texas, and just have 2 OOC games a year.
I know this will be unpopular with coogs, but it hooks the west up with three solid teams, and gives UH a nice schedule if you remove the Texas blinders
I don’t see how that works within this dynamic.
Best case is North plays 2 Texas amongst the 4 every year, one home, one away, which completes cycle every 2 years with all 4, and every 4 years playing both Home/Home.
But to maintain all the rivalries, have some semblance of geography, balance of travel, it’s gotta be the division over pods, and to play an true schedule, it’s 7 Division games + 4 Non-Division games. Just no ways around that in this format. You either protect rivalries/geography and schedule balance or schedule non-conference versatility.
Our admin would never go for it. Especially having Tech in an opposite division where we wouldn’t play them at home once every 8 years.
According to historic rivalries, it removes Colorado from all theirs. Not sure that matters big picture.
Nevermind. Misread.
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