I don’t consider those teams rivals, and I’m sure most Miami fans agree.
Fair statement....but we can apply that concept to any school in any conference. UF fans consider UGA, Tenn rivals in football. Do they consider Kent, Mizz or USCe rivals in football? Do they consider LSU a rival, they play them every year as the rivalry-crossover game?
What turns something into a rivalry?
- Long extended periods of playing each other.... Simple fact is we don't have 30-40 year histories of playing the same teams to establish rivalries. VT and FSU we have that history with. UF and ND ended 30 years ago with sporadic meetings since. Syracuse & BC would have been a maybes if they moved with us at the same time and joined our division. Pitt was just never a relevant team.
- Geographic reasons....Only FSU and UF fit that bill.
- Repeated meetings with some real stakes.....FSU, VT meet that. ND, Oklahoma, Nebraska in the 80's, 90's.
If we joined the SEC east 15 years ago, had the same 15 years of mediocrity.......Can we say any team besides UF would be considered a Rivalry? Who in that conference would consider us a Rival? Each team besides UF would list at least 3,4,5 other teams they would consider more of a rival than us.
I look at that Frankenstein B10 division with Nebraska and Maryland what rivalries do the have? They both abandoned all their traditional rivalries for a few more $.......Maybe the concept of rivalries doesn't matter in today's football.