Final standings for Big Ten Blogger's Pick'em

by GopherNation on Nov 24, 2008 11:57 AM CST

After leading for 12 weeks I have been overtaken. Who hates Iowa?

1	Happy Hour Valley	132
1	Michigan SportsCenter	132
3	Paint the Town Orange	131
4	Gopher Nation	130
4	Off the Tracks ™	130
4	Maize'n Brew	130
7	Lake the Posts	128
7	Zombie Nation	128
9	Black Shoes Diary	125
10	Boiled Sports	123
11	Eleven Warriors	121
12	Enlightened Spartan	120
13	Ground Zero East Lansing	119
14	Maize & Blue Nation	118
15	Sparty MSU	117
16	Hawkeye Sports News	116
17	The Buckeye Blog	114
17	Varsity Blue	114
19	Hoosier Report	110
20	The Nittany Line	107
21	Buckeye Battle Cry	99
22	The Only Game That Matters	80
23	BHGP (HS)	61
24	Nittany White Out	35

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Who hates Iowa?

I’m just curious. How do you explain to your kids the ‘Who hates Iowa’ chant?
I spend a lot of time teaching my kids that we don’t hate anyone. Is it so bad up there that your culture/teaching resembles madrasahs in pakistan? What’s next? Who hates the Jews!?!
I would think that the U 0f I would condone this chant and especially not let the band do it. It’s obvious that this hate runs deep through the students, alumni and faculty.

K. Ferentz - "Stars are for astronomers."

by jocohawk on Nov 25, 2008 8:33 AM CST 0 recs

Are you serious joco???

This is a stupid chant at a football game… It’s not like Minnesotan’s want to go down to Iowa and burn your school to the ground because we hate you so bad. If you don’t think this stuff goes on at your beloved school you need to get a grip. Look at your own BHGP blog and try and tell me that there isn’t a hate theme about MN… How would you like it if you were in our shoes where a ton of arrogant Hawkeye fans pour into our city because it makes for a good weekend getaway? I realize that it is pathetic to you Hawkeye fans that we don’t sell out our football stadium, but you all fail to realize that we have a billion sporting events going on in Minneapolis and unfortunately Gopher Football isn’t the top ticket in town. With the new stadium that seats less and will be the “new thing”, it will be a much tougher ticket for you Hawkeye fans to snatch up… I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride while it lasted!

by GreasyLlama on Nov 25, 2008 9:32 AM CST up 0 recs

I guess I am Serious

I just wanted to know what you tell your kids when you hear this chant inside the stadium, outside, restaurants, everywhere. (do you have kids)? My kids don’t read BHGP. Do yours read TDG?
I understand that every fan base has its knuckleheads and Iowa has its fair share, but we certainly don’t resort to grade school tactics when it comes to heckling visiting fans. You’re usually greeted with a “Go Hawks!” when you come to Iowa City.
You stated, “How would you like it if you were in our shoes where a ton of arrogant Hawkeye fans pour into our city because it makes for a good weekend getaway?”

I think the U of M likes it because they charge double for the Iowa ticket and I would also think that the hotels, restaurants and bars also like the extra revenue. Too bad it will all be gone soon.
As for your “new thing” (TCF Bank Stadium) it is just that. A fad that will go away soon because of the fair weather gopher fans. You will always have the excuse that there are many more things to do though in Mpls and “the gophers are not the top ticket”, as soon as Iowa fans fill up that stadium too.
Good luck selling blizzards in the new stadium when it’s twenty below outside. That will make up for all of the lost revenue that Kinnick North brought into the great state of MN.

K. Ferentz - "Stars are for astronomers."

by jocohawk on Nov 25, 2008 10:30 AM CST up 0 recs

Joco

It is a stupid chant and to be honest I wasn’t all that aware of it until very recently. I put it on this post in jest because I picked Minnesota to win in this pick’em and Iowa beat them (although it was within 56 points). Had MN won or had I picked Iowa I would be in first, really didn’t think it was that big of a deal. In an effort to end sincere hate in this world I will forever refrain from ever typing it on this blog again (seriously you’ll never see it again from me).

Maybe if Gopher fans can end this chant then we will set an example that certainly terrorists, racists, anti-Semites, anti-dentites and bigots everywhere will surely follow. Personally I think it is pretty harmless and I could look my son in the eye, tell him that we really don’t hate Iowa people, I think that would deter him from a hate filled life. If you want to end hate starting with the chants of Gopher fans should fall further down your list.

On the new stadium and Hawkeye fans having more trouble getting tickets. Fortunately the hotels and bars in Mpls will have two years to come up with a contingency plan on how they will ever recover from the one weekend every two years of Hawkeye fans. 30,000 additional people in a metropolitan area of 3,000,000+. You guys spent your money here but let’s not get carried away it’s not like the taxes generated are going to pay off the new Twins stadium early or anything.

Maybe the stadium will be a fad, but you seriously cannot discount the fact that there are other teams in town. People treat the Vikings here like Iowa fans treat Hawkeye FB. Even if the Gophers are great they’ll be at best the third biggest draw in town. Most people have finite resources. You can call us all fair weather but why spend money on a team that has been mediocre at best for decades and plays in a sterile environment. In the Dome the Gopher do not offer anything that sports fans can’t get somewhere else from a more competitive team. It is what it is, fair weather or having to make decisions with finite entertainment dollars. Just look at this weekend and the options people have to spend money, time, or effort to support.

Friday night
Kevin Garnett back in town playing against the Wolves.
Gopher Hockey taking on highly ranked Denver (away game)

Sat night
Gophers getting thrashed by Iowa
Gopher basketball at Colorado State
Gopher hockey again at Denver
Wild playing at home

Sun
Vikings at Jacksonville
Wolves beat Detroit on the road

This is happening most weekends throughout the year. To Iowa fans the FB game was THE event all week. In Minnesota it was third behind the Vikes and KG in town. I’m sorry if the entire state doesn’t come to a standstill just for Gopher football. Winning changes things. Again, maybe that’s fairweather or maybeit is just logic playing itself out.

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 25, 2008 12:39 PM CST 0 recs

ok - I'll admit I went a little overboard

with the “who hates jews” comment, but I was really curious if anyone had their kids ask them why Gophers HATE Iowa. Hate is a big word for kids. Any parent would know this, but I digress.
I’m also aware that there are more sports in MN than just Gopher football. I live(d) in large cities as well, but can still reach into my deep pockets and find time to travel where the hawks are, especially Iowa City, win or lose (I’m not the only one). If you travel around this great nation you will find hawkeye fans everywhere. They are passionate about their team(s) whether they drive a tractor or a porche and they go out of their way to let everyone know it. Again, win or lose. If I had time I would list all of the cities that have pro sports and can STILL fill a stadium for a team they are passionate about, but I don’t.

K. Ferentz - "Stars are for astronomers."

by jocohawk on Nov 25, 2008 5:30 PM CST up 0 recs

not when their team has been terrible for decades

Fist of all living in another big city and still supporting your home team is kind of a meaningless. There are Gopher fans all over the country as well. That is not the point.

You can give me the “win or lose we’ll fill the stadium” mantra, but imagine Iowa being bottom half of the Big Ten for thirty years. Apathy is inevitable when there are other options. The problem is that there has been a generation or two of kids growing up in Minnesota who just don’t care about the Gophers because they were irrelevant and there were other options. Even in Iowa this would happen IF the Hawkeyes were terrible for a lifetime and there was another quality team Iowan’s could call their own. It is truly apples and oranges.

You can rip Gopher fans for being apathetic, Gopher fans will rip Iowan’s for having nothing else in their sporting lives except one team.

Again, you can rip Gopher fans if you want but the facts are decades of losing will breed apathy anywhere, especially where there are other options. Not an excuse but it is what it is.

what you say here can, and will, be used against you

by GopherNation on Nov 26, 2008 9:52 AM CST up 0 recs

joco is a joke

Seriously? You are taking the moral high ground on this one because someone had a disparaging chant about Iowa? Do you have nothing better to do with your miserable life but come on a Gophers blog and try to convince us that iowa is a model society?

It would be one thing if there were threats of violence or personal attacks—or even indifference to such activity. There are worse things said by iowa fans—you need look no further than our (you and I) most recent reparte about athletic program superiority. One of your own fans referred to our women’s hockey team as:

“…six 250+-pound coeds….”

I didn’t realize Don Imus was an iowa alumnus. We are talking about collegiate athletes, and I don’t think there is any room for these sorts of insults here. Yet someone from your school decided that was okay when it is completely untrue.

Furthermore, most of the people I know around here are transplants from other Big 10 schools, and an alarming number have told me how apalling iowa fans’ behavior has been on their trips down there. Surely, there are knuckleheads from all allegiances, but I hear this more about iowa than anyone else in the Big 10 (yes, I realize this is anecdotal and not a scientific claim). So before you start chastising us for our chants, why don’t you look at your mug in the mirror you miserable mope.

I very much dislike Iowa.

Our very athletic and beautiful women’s hockey team:

by rencito on Nov 25, 2008 1:33 PM CST 0 recs

the all-knowing rencito

You are just mad at yourself because you forgot about the gopher wrestling team when you were counting all of the MN national championships in your ‘MN is Superior’ fan post and you were called on it. You were also informed by another hawk fan the REAL Hawkeye sports stats (re: iowa doesn’t have a golf team?). Once you knew you were wrong, you start with all of the inbreeding, tractors, etc. jokes and then say you were kidding. Right. I can “read between the lines” and your hatred runs deep. Probably more jealousy than hate, but I’ll let you decide that. I can’t be held responsible for others name calling on here and I guess I did call you ignorant, but I just call them like I see them. Just like a little brother you have to wait for someone else stick up for you and then you open your mouth while standing behind their back. Let’s take this for what it is….A blog where we can all get on each others nerves. And it works, obviously. Let’s just not take it into the streets or let’s do. We can go back to the thirties when your badass football team was killing players (Jack Trice) and refs were looking the other way. I know you don’t know what I’m talking about. Look it up.

K. Ferentz - "Stars are for astronomers."

by jocohawk on Nov 25, 2008 4:33 PM CST up 0 recs

just wondering...

Who’s back am I standing behind? I’ve responded to each and every one of your empty pontifications about your self-proclaimed, delusional perceptions of how good your athletic program is (it really isn’t).

I stepped into this thread when you hypocritically get on fans for a “who hates iowa” chant when you say chickenhawk fans are so cordial and welcoming yet proved to you evidence to the contrary posted by one of your own.

Like you said, this is a blog where we can get on each other’s nerves. You want to take this one to the streets, do you? So how about we settle this in person and we’ll settle it once and for all? I’ll buy you a beer at a local tavern and we can watch my Gophers volleyball team destroy iowa on Wednesday (hopefully it is on the Big Ten Network—haven’t checked—its in iowa). And when they do, you’ll owe me one.

Yes, this is me taking the moral high ground this time and extending the olive branch—I don’t think either one of us care to spend time carrying on this feud over Thanksgiving. Surely, we both have better things to do—like teach our kids not to hate—by leading by example.

by rencito on Nov 25, 2008 9:08 PM CST up 0 recs