Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

You can have a harmless, meh rival.  Any one-sided rivalry is meh.  
Since 1975, Oregon has an 11-0-1 streak vs the Beavs and are currently on an 11-1 run in the last 12 years.  They can call it the Civil War and call it a rivalry, but Oregon State is battling the cellar, not the Ducks.

That was some solid shade thrown at GaTech by the Dawg guy. But I think you're onto something.

Having said that, the casual fan probably knows about GaTech's rivalry (such as it is) with Georgia. Oregon/Oregon State's Civil War is a thing. Does anyone outside of Iowa even know that Iowa and Iowa State have a game every year?

And back to Illinois--does it even have a rival? (Yes, Northwestern is manufactured so that they have a game to play that fits the B1G definition of rivalry games). If you're not in the Big Ten, do you ever think about Illinois football?

In the Big Ten I would go with Illinois. Seriously, does anyone really care about it for football? Purdue and Indiana have each other (and ND) to compete with in-state. Iowa has Iowa State, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; Minnesota has Iowa and Wisconsin, Nebraska has too big a target on its back...Illinois is milquetoast. Rutgers and Maryland don't belong.

I think Iowa State has a serious claim to this. Sure, it has Iowa, but Iowa's big rivals are Minnesota and Wisconsin, aren't they?

Wazzu and Oregon State both have big rivalries in their home states, but outside of those in-state rivalries, no one else in their conference really cares about them (Cal is similar, with its Stanford rivalry and nothing else).

Boston College also has the Notre Dame thing. Domers do not like BC (mostly because of 1993). I think if you're in the SEC you're out--even if you are Arkansas--be nature of being in the SEC. Of the Big 12, K-State was successful enough under Snyder that there were plenty of people who didn't like it, same with Colorado back in the late 80s, early 90s. Which leads me back to Iowa State.

Iowa State handed OU its last home loss, so I hate those bastages!!!
Not really.  How can you hate Iowa State?  They're overachievers and they have great, loyal fans.  There's nothing to hate about them.
Oh, maybe those all-red unis look bad.  But not bad enough to hate.

GaTech has been pretty pathetic of late, notwithstanding how good they were in the 1950s and 1960s.  I bet if you read your team had scheduled a series with Tech today you'd think very much mehish about it.  You might think "Well, one will be in the ATL and maybe I'll visit the CFB HOF or something."

But they are probably top ten on any Apathy Scale.  Even Dawg fans have stopped hating them.  It's not like they are Eastern Michigan or something.

I thought ISU ditched the bird-in-a-blender in favor of I-STATE.

If they bring that thing back, I might have to reconsider.

Not sure, haven't paid enough attention to them to notice, honestly, which is why they're a perfect candidate for this nomination for this thread.

But in my mind, I'll always see the bird-in-a-blender.  What has been seen, cannot be unseen.

Nothing powers that like long stretches of futility and the "big brother" looking down on an opponent.

Yup,Wolverine Fans were borderline brutal during the Cooper years.So with the exception of Tressel's 1st year where tOSU traveled to AA and won as a dog,Ive shown restraint.I think they sense sympathy which really pisses them off

When the Buckeyes scheduled Colorado and OSU3 they were just one off home games, with no return game. Like bringing in a MAC team.