Judd says Badger fans don't consider Minnesota a rival

Stan

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I was at the football game in Madison and saw close to 100 shirts and pins that said "Beat Minnesota." You don't see that at the NW or Purdue games...
 

As usual Judd is wrong. One thing I will say though is KFAN definitely does not consider 1500 ESPN as competition. When your ratings are 10x, it's not competition.
 

Judd obviously doesn't know a single soul who's a Wisconsin fan then. When the Badgers beat the Gophers in football (which has happened way too damn many times lately) my Facebook timeline is filled with pictures of the Axe and taunts to Minnesota from all the people I grew up with in Madison and went to UW. The rivalry is definitely not one-sided, Judd.
 

Does this guy live under a rock? They hate us/we hate them.
 


He has a point though. We really need to step up huge or they need to fall back to the pack.
 

If this were pro ball, he may have a point. But in college level athletics, rivalries go a bit deeper than just the sheer competition. Yes, we've been slacking in both sports the last bunch of years. But in basketball in particular, it's not like they just kill us every time, there have been some pretty darn good games over the years. Football...meh haha.
 

I think if someone asked a significant sampling of Badger fans who one of their main rivals has become for both of the major sports (football & men's basketball) a good number of them would say Michigan State. Both are now heavyweights in both sports along with Ohio State, and they've had a lot of intense, competitive, and memorable games in recent years. It's one of the reasons I was surprised the Big Ten put Purdue in the West Division instead of Michigan State. Wisconsin-MSU is/was well on its way to being a really good rivalry, and putting them in the same (and weaker) football division would have enhanced that while at the same time help balance the divisions a bit.
 

I think if someone asked a significant sampling of Badger fans who one of their main rivals has become for both of the major sports (football & men's basketball) a good number of them would say Michigan State. Both are now heavyweights in both sports along with Ohio State, and they've had a lot of intense, competitive, and memorable games in recent years. It's one of the reasons I was surprised the Big Ten put Purdue in the West Division instead of Michigan State. Wisconsin-MSU is/was well on its way to being a really good rivalry, and putting them in the same (and weaker) football division would have enhanced that while at the same time help balance the divisions a bit.

MSU may indeed be ONE of Wisconsin's biggest rivals, but I'm confident that if you asked that same significant sampling of Badger fans who their BIGGEST rival was, you would get Minnesota as an overwhelming response, and that's an important difference. Plus that's true across their 3 biggest revenue sports: football, basketball and hockey.
 



I think if someone asked a significant sampling of Badger fans who one of their main rivals has become for both of the major sports (football & men's basketball) a good number of them would say Michigan State. Both are now heavyweights in both sports along with Ohio State, and they've had a lot of intense, competitive, and memorable games in recent years. It's one of the reasons I was surprised the Big Ten put Purdue in the West Division instead of Michigan State. Wisconsin-MSU is/was well on its way to being a really good rivalry, and putting them in the same (and weaker) football division would have enhanced that while at the same time help balance the divisions a bit.

I have to imagine that 90%+ of MSU fans consider their biggest rival as Michigan. Hands down.
 


I have to imagine that 90%+ of MSU fans consider their biggest rival as Michigan. Hands down.

I'd put that at 100%, definitely. (Notre Dame would be 2nd)

My point is MSU-Wisconsin has become one of the conference's "new" rivalries, one that's not your classic bordering-states rivarly, but one that has developed in large part because of those schools' rise to being bell cows (along with OSU) in each of the main (non-niche) sports, especially since Bo and Izzo started going head to head, and certainly in football since MSU's rise under Dantonio.
 

The antagonistic stance our local media take to their readers is really shocking to me. But I suppose it's one of the reasons their industry is dying. But everybody locally is tweeting pro-Wisconsin stuff right now, and not just the obvious analysis of the game, but pro-badger, anti-gopher stuff. I guess it would hurt more if the jibes were from competent media professionals who we had any reason to respect, as journalists, writers, or thinkers.
 



Grew up a badger fan. Never considered gophers much of a rival. Spent 4 years at the u and am a converted fan, but I still don't see this as a two sided rivalry. It's a measuring stick game for the gophs these days. Judd is right, rivals can't be one-sided. It's a state border though, so of course people will give the standard taunts to the other team's fans. To me any rivalry here is a trickle-down from packers/Vikings.


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I grew up in Minnesota then my family moved just outside of Madison when I was in high school. I am a die hard gophs fan and I consider the Badgers to be our biggest rival. I think just about all of my buddies that are big time badgers fans also consider the gophs to be their biggest rival. With that being said I do still go to a fair amount of badger games when I am back home.
 

I grew up in Minnesota then my family moved just outside of Madison when I was in high school. I am a die hard gophs fan and I consider the Badgers to be our biggest rival. I think just about all of my buddies that are big time badgers fans also consider the gophs to be their biggest rival. With that being said I do still go to a fair amount of badger games when I am back home.

This is exactly right. I have been to the past 3 gopher games at Camp Randall. There is definitely a fun atmosphere and feel at Camp Randall when the gophs come to town but mainly only because there are so many gophers there. They do NOT feel that there is any threat at all from the gophers until this past year. However, I definitely noticed a change in their thought process this year. The fans didn't seem nearly as arrogant or snide as they did back in the Brewster days which means they are starting to respect us more.

I guess where I was trying to go with this is yes, it is still a "rivalry" because we are bordering states which means there is a good mix of fans that collide but I promise you no Badger fans feel the slightest bit intimidated by us on the actually playing field/court. Jerry is starting to change that mindset, Pitino hasn't even come close. If Pitino would have accepted the Bama job I would have offered to personally drive him down there.
 


Uhm.....

Jan. 22, 2014
MN vs. Wisconsin
W, 81-68

Check the join date.

If rivalries come and go every 10-15 years or so, then some may not think of us as a rival. Problem is this series goes back more than 100 years.
 

The antagonistic stance our local media take to their readers is really shocking to me. But I suppose it's one of the reasons their industry is dying. But everybody locally is tweeting pro-Wisconsin stuff right now, and not just the obvious analysis of the game, but pro-badger, anti-gopher stuff. I guess it would hurt more if the jibes were from competent media professionals who we had any reason to respect, as journalists, writers, or thinkers.

This. The fan does not get true insight and knowledge on local radio; this is the best they have, so they listen to it.

This is about what I would expect someone like Judd to say. Next.
 

Heard this on the radio this morning. It is an oversimplistic view and doesn't make Judd look like he has a brain at all. The w/l column the past 17 years does not tell the whole story.
 

I seem to recall that the Gophers hold series edges over the Badgers in both Football and Basketball. The pendulum has swung in their favor the past couple of decades, but my sense is that it's beginning to swing slowly back in our favor. I'm sure that among us older fans, Badger fans still feel the rivalry between the two schools. If the same is not true of younger fans, my guess is that they will in time.
 

Badger rivalry rankings:
1. OSU
2. MSU
3. Minnesota
4. Iowa
5. Nortwestern
 

Judd is right. Gopher fans want the Badgers to be the main rival but when the combined record for football and basketball over the last 10 years is 4-23 there is no rivalry.
 

Badger rivalry rankings:
1. OSU
2. MSU
3. Minnesota
4. Iowa
5. Nortwestern

And those first two you list, far and away their biggest rival is Michigan. I would bet everything that the fan bases for those schools only think about Wisconsin when they're playing them; they don't live and breathe hatred for Bucky like they do Michigan...not even close.
 


And those first two you list, far and away their biggest rival is Michigan. I would bet everything that the fan bases for those schools only think about Wisconsin when they're playing them; they don't live and breathe hatred for Bucky like they do Michigan...not even close.

And for those 2 fan bases it doesn't even matter if Michigan is good or not it's still a big rivalry.
 


It's not a rivalry when Gopher fans cheer for them in the final four!
 






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