EVERYONE WILL BE OUR RIVAL…us against the world.  We are going to start winning so much that everyone is going to play us like their rival.  Our trophy will be the SBC championship tropy.

Geographically…I see Florida Gulf Coast joining the Sun Belt soon with them starting a football program as well.

owlcountry40 said

dusky256fc said

owlfamily said

For us not for them.  8)

They already have a rivalry with MTSU and soon to be USA, whom they have had a FCS rivalry with.

As OC40 said you cant really force these things, but you have to start somewhere.

TxState could be fun to hate.

fiu swore that we weren't their rival so we'll do the same with Troy  ;D

 Now FIU has some heated rivals with Old Dominion and UTSA  :

FIU will say their rival is UM although UM won't go along with that. Having a rival that you only compete against in baseball makes for a dull program.

I've thought about this a lot lately and I still don't know. FIU was such a convenient rival in so many ways. I don't think they realize how important our series were to both schools. We certainly enjoyed them, they downplayed them (except for that one year that the President (?) brought a bus of FIU students to the Burrow)

Tim said

EVERYONE WILL BE OUR RIVAL…us against the world.  We are going to start winning so much that everyone is going to play us like their rival.  Our trophy will be the SBC championship tropy.

I like this idea. UF certainly does this: when I was in Gainesville, who they hated in a given week was whoever was ranked higher than them on their schedule. They claimed FSU but it barely came up. It was LSU this, Georgia that, screw Alabama… changed every week.

Rivalries are good for attendance but at that level, every school has good attendance and diehard fans. The general apathy in the Sun Belt (although this year it's getting better) makes it difficult for us to have any fun with it, regardless of who we "pick" to be new rivals with.

Troy, great, they have fans online you can mess with, but only a couple dozen actually travel (that criticism applies to us too), neither team is ranked and neither has a really dedicated college town behind them… that I know of anyway. Do you feel like you're being eyeballed in "enemy territory" in Troy, Alabama? Or do you stop at a gas station and the people don't even know there's a game going on? Because I imagine that's how it is for most of the SBC schools.

Tim said

Geographically…I see Florida Gulf Coast joining the Sun Belt soon with them starting a football program as well.

I'd prefer UNF over FGCU, if possible.

I think once FAU starts winning again and establishes itself, especially if we can somehow sneak into the Top 25, then I think FIU will start knocking on our door again and talk about how great our games were and how we should revive it.

Maybe we'll be able to develop a rivalry with GSU. Although they are further away from us, they're probably the fastest conference rival for us to travel to. We're both in metropolitan areas. We also both graduated from the A-Sun. We'll have to see what happens once we meet on the field.

The FIU "rivalry" never developed for a lot of reasons. It seemed like it was forced upon the student body. The outcome of the football games left one party disinterested. Ultimately, we'll probably end up back in a conference with them.

Given their proximity, the 1 year difference in the age of our programs, the similarity of our names, this is just a natural rivalry.  It's ironic that their program sucked for so long, has a couple of good seasons, then suddenly they're snubbing their noses at us with a C-USA invite.  This season has brought them back to earth that's for sure. 

BTW, Prepare For Your Ass-Whippin' FIU!

I'd say MTSU or Troy.  Rivalries occur naturally and are based less on geography and more on what's at stake in the game.  With our quick rise in our formative years, we gave MTSU hell.  We also beat Troy in what was our unofficial conference championship game to go to the NO Bowl.

Miami and Notre Dame created a rivalry through the 80's & 90's as their games almost always determined who would go to the National Championship that year, as did UM's games with FSU.\

USC and ND.  Ages ago, before the wheel, this was another game that demanded attention for the National Title.

UF and GA, geographically close but for years this has determined who represents the SECe in their conference game.

I think FIU was a "convenient" rival based on location and birth of the programs, NOT on what was at stake for the game.

SigEp77 said

I'd say MTSU or Troy.  Rivalries occur naturally and are based less on geography and more on what's at stake in the game.  With our quick rise in our formative years, we gave MTSU hell.  We also beat Troy in what was our unofficial conference championship game to go to the NO Bowl.

I've always thought of Troy as our main rival.  Seemed to me that they were always the one to beat to get anywhere for bowls, recognition etc.

After the Troy game, you got the impression from the players that they viewed the Trojans as a rival.

dusky256fc said

sjacks78 said

i personally see troy as a rival, we have always had a losing record to them and just now beat them the first time at home. Say next year rolls around, we will want to stay on top and they will want redemption for losing to a 1-7 team. I could see it heating up and turning into something interesting, especially if we start beating them more.

I agree with Troy.  I don't despise Troy like I do the kitties but I do believe it could turn into a solid rivalry over the years.

Regarding the kitties going to CUSA,  look up RPI or any conference rankings and they are at the very bottom.  So much for moving up.

Don't kid yourself - although it is probably a down year for them, C USA is still a step up in an overall conference.

I still think FIU will be the main rival, and I would bet a few years down the road we probably get invited into C USA.

With getting win no. 2 over Troy I would say they are our most natural Belt rivalry now.