I miss? The genuine hatred of a true rivalry week. Not this manufactured stuff they have now where teams change conferences every five years. I’m talking about lining up against Duquesne in the fall, when the air got crisp and you knew every single guy on the other sideline. That 2002 game at Tullio Field, when we blocked that punt in the final minute to win it, the whole student section poured onto the field. You think any of these kids transferring into Oregon or Oklahoma State feel that? They weren’t there for the three-overtime loss the year before that made the win taste so sweet. They just show up for a paycheck. Now you’ve got these “rivalries” built on which school’s NIL collective wrote a bigger check. They’re talking about Oregon’s Raiola brothers like it’s some heartwarming family reunion. Please. That’s just a transaction with a nice bow on it. It reminds me of when the old NEC started to splinter, when the conference identity that made those games mean something started to fade. We played for a trophy, for bragging rights that lasted 365 days until you got another shot. Now players are gone in 12 months, chasing the next best offer. They’ll never understand what it was to build something over four years with the same group of guys, to hate another team because you bled against them every single seaosn. That’s all gone. Replaced by a portal free-for-all and these soulless “games” between teams that have no history. Give me a muddy field in Erie against an old foe any day over this sterile, corporate version of the sport they’re selling us.

We built our rivalries. BYU hates us for real.

You Duquesne folks forget we blocked your game-winning field goal in '98, and that hatred tasted just as sweet

You lost. Get over it.

You Duquesne folks are still bitter about that blocked punt, I see. We earned that win the old-fashioned way.

this ignores that real rivalries are built on the field, not just tenure. oregon vs. ohio state already has more intensity and higher stakes than most legacy games, with a 45-42 thriller last season. the emotion comes from competing for championships, not just shared history.

you're just bitter because your program can't compete in the modern era no cap. we build our rivalries on the field every year, and the passion against north carolina is deeper than any regional conferece you're pining for. that hatred is real, and it's earned through decades of battles that actually matter on a national stage. our players understand what it means to wear the duke jersey against the tar heels, regardless of how they got here. you're romanticizing a lower level of football because your current team can't handle the fact that college football has evolved and left you behind. we focus on winning real championships, not pretending some small-school trophy compares to the victory bell.

You're talking about Duquesne? We were beating ranked teams in the old SWC while you were playing in that minor league.

we still have real rivalries. usc, stanford. they hate us.

We still have that real hate with Kent State every year, and nothign beats beating them in the Wagon Wheel game

You Duquesne folks sure love living in the past, but that blocked punt is the only thing keeping you warm at night

You lost that game. We won it.

You're speaking a truth that's getting harder to find every year. That 2002 Duquesne game you described is exactly what this sport is supposed to be about, and you're right, that fabric is tearing. It's not just the portal or NIL, it's the complete destruction of regional identity. When conferences are just TV inventory maps, the roots die. Those NEC battles, where you knew every name and face on the other sideline for four straight years, created a real animosity you can't manufacture. We have that here in the SCIAC. You spend your entire college career battling the same guys from Pomona-Pitzer, from Redlands. The hatred is earned through cumulative bruises and last-second heartbreaks across multiple seasons. Now, a kid loses a starting job at mid-tier Power Five school and he's in the portal before the equipment managers have collected the towels. How can you build a rivalry when the roster is a revolving door? The Raiola story is a perfect example. It's a business decision packaged as nostalgia. That sterile, corporate feel you mentioned is what's killing the soul of the game. They've traded muddy fields and genuine stakes for clean uniforms and temporary employees. You can't replicate the weight of history that comes from lining up against the same program, in the same conference. That's what we still have, and it's what they've lost for good.

We've got real history with K-State and Mizzou, not some corporate rivalry you're imagining

We hate Purdue every single year

Texas-OU is real. 5 straight top-15 matchups.

That 2002 nostalgia is cute, but you're clinging to a dead era. The game evolves, and Rutgers is winning in this new landscape by locking down NJ croots and using the portal to fill immediate needs. That "built over four years" stuff loses to Ohio State's five-stars every time.

We've had the same core rivalries for a century and they mean more than ever, especially when we own South Carolina every year