I’m not arguing the importance of the rivalry to both teams and their fans. I too would miss playing Florida State every year if the future came to that conclusion. I’ve always wanted Miami and Florida State to play on the same weekend every year. We may be the lone big rivalry that doesn’t play at the same weekend every season. I’m probably wrong there, but you know what I mean.
And by the way, I wonder how many years during the Lloyd Carr-John Cooper years did the Michigan-Ohio State game decide the Big Ten championship? At the end of the season. I don’t think a Miami-Florida State game even meant anything to the ACC other than both team’s conference record. We never played them in the ACC title game. This is what the ACC wanted, but fate was not on their side.
But you never know. Maybe Miami joins the Big Ten without Florida State and we have annual games with Penn State, whom we have history with, or Ohio State, a limited history, or Michigan, with no meaningful history. Of course with Miami’s luck, the ‘mandated conference rivalry game’ will be Rutgers. A Big Least Throwback. Oh no!
We’ll see what the future holds.