WSU and Creighton - Rivals or Not?

[iSASO]

What say the fans? Are Creighton and WSU rivals in baseball?

[jaybydna]

Again? Really?

"hey hey hey look at me look at me hey look at me look at me gosh darn it I am relevant!!!!"

[3ontheway]

no, wsu is rivals with other national baseball powerhouse programs like ASU, Miami, Florida, Florida St., Texas, OU, LSU and the like that always seem to be in Super Regioanls and the CWS, not a team like CU. Oh wait, maybe they are rivals.

[ictjay]

What say the fans? Are Creighton and WSU rivals in baseball?

Tonight for sure! What better conclusion to the tourney. WSU has shown that they can play with the best and also lose to the worst. Appears they have righted the ship somewhat winning the last 8 of 9. CU wins by defense, pitching and small ball. CU's pitching is a little thin for tonight and it will be a committee effort. WSU has much more firepower with the bats than CU. If CU doesn't get better than average effort from its pitching, it will be a blowout.
ISASO, I've met you and your a smart reasonable guy. Wouldn't you think CU is in regardless of the outcome. I realize the SOS thing, but they did take care of business with the teams they should beat. Won the league and made it to the championship game of the tourney.

Don't understand the "rented" thing. SN and MVCfans WSU posters have some hangup with that. Is CU to feel inferior or something? We don't. Are we suppose to?

[3ontheway]

ictjay, koch and wsu's baseball stadium are not anywhere near as nice compared to where cu plays now. cu baseball played in the dump of dumps for many years, not anymore. the civic left a lot to be desired, the Qwest Center is one of the nicest arenas in college basketball. these are rented and not owned. the wsu faithful feel inferior about where their beloved shox play, so they point out that cu is a renter. it makes them feel better about themselves. that is the only way i can make sense of it, as there are many, many instances of college teams playing in rented venues. i guess they are all inferior to wsu.

[iSASO]

IctJay, I do think CU has a decent shot at getting an at-large bid and that would be my preferred scenario. They lose today and get an at-large bid.

The whole rented vs. owned thing boils down to two things.
1. It's another thing WSU fans can rag CU fans about, but it does indicate that CU doesn't have the wherewithall to provide for themselves.
2. MSU fans said the same exact thing 6-7 years ago. Hammons Field was built just for them and they would have priority schedule rights, WSU would never host anything again, ya da ya da. Next thing you know, they're not even bidding on events because the Springfield Cardinals swooped in and took the place over. Don't even complain that you cannot host something because another tenant is using the facility. I, for one, will remember this time in history and you will regret it just like Bear fans regret their statements.

But back to the original question which none of you have answered: Do you consider WSU and Creighton to be rivals in baseball? A simple yes or no answer will be sufficient. It's not an essay contest.

[2livewu]

I think CU gets into the tourney win or lose tonight, and yes I certainly hope the Valley gets 2 bids. After Jack Watkins said one "bracketologist" had Illinois State in I had to check.....they were on the bubble.

I respect the way CU plays. Whether or not you have great talent, you can always have great effort and execution and CU certainly does that. WSU used to do that. Now it's only occasionally. I hope tonight is one of those occasions. WSU SHOULD be in the tournament, but season ending injuries to our #1 and #3 (or 4) pitchers and 2 starters in the field, combined with yet another tragic death within the athletic department and poor coaching and execution throughout most of the season has put them in a win or go home situation tonight. It shouldn't be.....but it is.

Here's hoping to both teams giving some BCS teams a turd nugget next weekend.

[MoValley John]

This "rivalry" thing has several facets. Therefore, the answer is "yes." and "No."

On one hand, every Wichita State player coach student and fan considers Creighton their rivalry. In some instances, it has spewed pure unaldulterated hatred. On the other hand, you have Creighton, and it depends on who you talk to and what sport is being discussed. From what I can gather, the administration at Creighton never considered it a rivalry, but as of late (the last couple of years) they have played it up a bit in hopes of generating more interest from fans. You can't blame them, it's just good marketing.

As for how this rivalry breaks down sport by sport, in basketball, Creighton dominated Wichita State for close to 20 years, so there wasn't this hatred toward them, SIU was the basketball rival. Some of that is changing with Wichita State's emergence to the forefront of the conference leaderboard and their recent wins against Creighton. In any sport, a one sided rivalry simply isn't a rivalry and with Wichita State stealing Creighton's thunder in basketball, it might get chippy. Conversely, I would venture to say that Creighton baseball fans consider Wichita State a rival simply because Wichita State is the benchmark in the Valley. I don't care what school or what sport, you want to knock off the top. As for minor sports, rowing lacrosse and other two bit activities that the Valley may offer, there is little or no rivalry.

As for Creighton fans at large, there are two groups, those that troll message boards and those that don't. The ones that are here and lurk other Valley sites, sure they get caught up in this rivalry. But those are a small percentage of the fanbase. Most Creighton fans aren't in denial of a rivalry, they simply don't know it is supposed to exist. In my section at the Qwest Center, most are unaware of such a rivalry.

As for the local press, it is only recently that the sports media has been mentioning the rivalry word. And that may have a lot to do with Creighton fans being in the dark about this so called rivalry. In reality, until this year, the only media personality that tried to build the rivalry was the guy that is no longer on the air here and runs a message board. That guy wanted the rivalry to grow. Wichita State fans are spoiled with Suellenthrop, he covers Wichita State almost daily and 12 months a year. Locally in Omaha, Creighton has to fight for media coverage.

In the end, I believe that the Creighton administration has began to embrace the idea as a way to boost coverage and marketing, but the culmination of it turning into a rivalry as far as from Creighton's perspective, it will take both Creighton and Wichita State to continue to be leaders for a few years for the thing to sink in with the average fan. The Ohio State- Michigan rivalry wasn't born in a day, and it took both schools competing at the top of the polls for several years to be ingrained in the culture. It will take the same sustained success at both schools for it to take hold here as well.

[iSASO]

So, in short, you believe that Creighton fans consider WSU a baseball rival. We know that at least one Creighton baseball player considers WSU a rival. That's all I was asking for.

[MVCfans]

From what I saw and could take from the post-game, Creighton players certainly look at Wichita State as their rival.