It is rare in college sports that a rivalry can encompass both teams' basketball and football programs.
It can be argued Ohio's rivalry with Miami covers football and basketball. However, a skeptic (me) can argue that the scheduling gods have taken the thunder out of the Battle of the Bricks when it's played out on grass (in our case, field turf). Last year, the Ohio-Miami game fell on the Monday of finals week, resulting in a crowd of only 9,908, a far cry from what constitutes a solid turnout for a rivalry game.
This year's contest at Miami will be played at noon the day after Thanksgiving, a day every Miami student will be at home shopping for the perfect The North Face jacket to go with new pleated khakis instead of rooting for their RedHawks.
Whether the Ohio-Miami rivalry stretches past what goes on in the winter is questionable, but this Saturday's football game between Ohio and Buffalo is certainly not a rivalry.
Ever since Leon Williams tipped in the game-winning basket of the 2005 Mid-American Conference basketball tournament against Buffalo, there's been this silly notion that the Bobcats and Bulls are arch rivals. I'll accept the notion of a rivalry blooming on the basketball court, but when these schools face off on the football field, it's the furthest thing from it.
When the Ohio basketball team traveled to Buffalo last season, 5,884 angry Buffalonians greeted them dressed in hate Ohio T-shirts. When the Ohio football team traveled to that same place a couple of months earlier, they were greeted by 5,814, well, freezing cold Buffalo fans.
Maybe it's because the two teams have been so perennially bad in the last 10 years that they just settle and become rivals, like that sad couple everyone knows who don't like each other but can't see themselves finding anyone better.
But this year it'll be different, right? Both teams are supposed to be much better than they were last year and this could be a matchup between two up-and-coming teams in the MAC, correct?
Ohio has held its end of the bargain, being better and more exciting than last year, but it's tough to say Buffalo has changed much. While they already have matched their win total from last season (one), the Bulls' accolades this season include giving the worst team in all of college football (Temple) its only single-digit loss of the season, allowing 55 points to Ball State on their own homecoming and having their game postponed last Saturday because of excessive snow ' only Buffalo could have an October game canceled because of snow.
There's only one real cure to these notions of a blooming rivalry and that is to blow out the Bulls on Homecoming Saturday. If, for some ludicrous reason, the Bobcats lose this weekend's game, fans could be one step closer to trading those red and white Muck Fiami shirts for a blue and white Buck Fuffalo top.
17 Archives
Andrew Gribble
200610191741midsize.jpg
Rudy Sylvan (88) and the Bobcats will be looking for their third-straight win Homecoming Saturday when they welcome the Buffalo Bulls into Peden Stadium.
