Who are your school's biggest rivals?

[sivert]

Even when Drake was horrible Creighton, Iowa, Iowa State and UNI were almost always sold out. UNI is the only one of those left, and they seem to lose interest fast when things aren't going well. I feel like everybody in the conference is a decent rival with Drake having played all of them from the time they entered the conference to the present. WSU always drew a big crowd too.

By "they" you mean AARP super club that is the (K)Napp Center home crowd? UNI always has a decent crowd in DSM for that game. Many of the Drake fans in years past were typically cranky that they were still up at 7 pm for tip off.

Thankfully the recent success of the Bulldogs has helped bring the average age at games below retirement level and made the atmosphere more exciting and fun for opposing fans.

UNI has decent crowds in DSM? That must be where they are going instead of Cedar Falls.

If you recall, in the last UNI at Drake game before COVID shutdown, you could hear the UNI chants on the broadcast.
That was the game UNI dominated before getting dominated by Drake at the Arch.

[BCPanther]

UNI leads the world in playing the same team on Friday in St Louis that they played in the last regular season game. It's happened 8 times since 2004. The odds against that have to be astronomical.

[TheDrake]

Even when Drake was horrible Creighton, Iowa, Iowa State and UNI were almost always sold out. UNI is the only one of those left, and they seem to lose interest fast when things aren't going well. I feel like everybody in the conference is a decent rival with Drake having played all of them from the time they entered the conference to the present. WSU always drew a big crowd too.

By "they" you mean AARP super club that is the (K)Napp Center home crowd? UNI always has a decent crowd in DSM for that game. Many of the Drake fans in years past were typically cranky that they were still up at 7 pm for tip off.

Thankfully the recent success of the Bulldogs has helped bring the average age at games below retirement level and made the atmosphere more exciting and fun for opposing fans.

Speaking of UNI fans who seem to lose interest fast when things aren't going well... Welcome back to the message board!

[Drakey]

Even when Drake was horrible Creighton, Iowa, Iowa State and UNI were almost always sold out. UNI is the only one of those left, and they seem to lose interest fast when things aren't going well. I feel like everybody in the conference is a decent rival with Drake having played all of them from the time they entered the conference to the present. WSU always drew a big crowd too.

By "they" you mean AARP super club that is the (K)Napp Center home crowd? UNI always has a decent crowd in DSM for that game. Many of the Drake fans in years past were typically cranky that they were still up at 7 pm for tip off.

Thankfully the recent success of the Bulldogs has helped bring the average age at games below retirement level and made the atmosphere more exciting and fun for opposing fans.

By "they I actually meant UNI fans. A bunch of them come to the UNI game at Drake when they are winning. not so much when they are mediocre.

[BearsCountry]

Bears main rival is Wichita State. Basketball, baseball, volleyball. Then followed by SIU and UNI.

[PantherSigEp]

It's pretty safe to say that UNI has ALWAYS shown up well in DSM. Or at least since McDermott and Jacobson have been around.

Des Moines is home to one of the largest bases of UNI alumni and the Drake game is one of the best opportunities for many of us to see the Panthers, especially during the winter when driving up to CF regularly isn't an option. Even during some of the recent down seasons there's been a noticeable UNI presence.

[tribecalledquest]

It's pretty safe to say that UNI has ALWAYS shown up well in DSM. Or at least since McDermott and Jacobson have been around.

Des Moines is home to one of the largest bases of UNI alumni and the Drake game is one of the best opportunities for many of us to see the Panthers, especially during the winter when driving up to CF regularly isn't an option. Even during some of the recent down seasons there's been a noticeable UNI presence.

And this is an example of why having an MVC team in Chicago is a big deal. Replace DSM with Chicago and UNI alums with Bradley, SIU and ISU alums and it's the same scenario.

[BuBrave2006]

“The War on 74”
Illinois State Redbirds vs Bradley Braves
39 Miles down I-74 separate the 2 schools
The War continues Sunday January 16th 7PM
Redbird Arena
MARQUEE Channel XFINITY 672
“It Sucks to BU”

It took me an extra two years to propose to my wife since she was an ISU grad.

I'm sure marrying up was intimidating.

It just took that long to get her to agree on the terms of the Prenup.

[BEARZ77]

Bears main rival is Wichita State. Basketball, baseball, volleyball. Then followed by SIU and UNI.

It was a strange rivalry, baseball and volleyball were consistent as both teams were pretty good most years. MBB was only competitive in spurts, WSU was bad in the 90's, and things were heated in the first decade of this century, but they dominated us during the Lusk years, I mean really dominated. In WBB it has always been Drake as both programs have only had short periods of not being really good; UNI had a spurt at the top and is generally competitive, but never at the level of Drake/MSU . WSU had a brief spurt when both MSU and Drake were in a bit of a down period, but it's really always been Drake/MSU in WBB since early 90's. Drake probably had close to as much success in the regular season and MVC tourney in the 90's and again in the last decade, but couldn't match MSU's success in post season .

That's really a major complaint for me of the current MVC structure, there just isn't a natural rival for MSU; the two that always made the most sense would have been Tulsa if they had stayed, but they left quickly after MSU joined the Valley, and of course SLU if they had joined. There was always bad blood between SLU and us when we were playing semi regularly ; it had that private/public flavor and they always saw themselves as better even though we dominated the series.

It'll be interesting the next few years if no further changes happen; we're now starting to get some flak in football from a couple schools who haven't liked being beat the last two years after we were so bad for so long. I've always thought Illinois St was the most similar school and things have been testy there in a few sports including football . The problem again for us, is most of the rest of the Valley have both natural regional and long standing rivals in their states.

[unipanther99]

I don't think any coaching staffs disliked each other as much as Cheryl Burnett and Tony DiCecco back in the day.