Who are your/our rivals?

[Omaha1]

I think Creighton-Marquette and Creighton-Xavier have potential to be our biggest rivalries if we're invited.

[jkc_dawgs]

Butler-Creighton, Butler- Marquette, Butler- Saint Louis, and Butler- Xavier

[BillEsq]

I think Slu v. X and Slu v Dayton will remain good. I think SLU v. Butler looks to be good for the future. And i think Slu v. Marquette and SLu v Depaul were always good and will be again. Slu v. Creighton would also be a great rivalry. Creighton has a history of traveling well to STL for Arch Madness and both are good in similar sports across the board. That said i think the most natural is SLU DePaul something about St. Louis v. Chicago just has a nice ring to it.

[pki1998]

Xavier’s biggest rivalry is always going to be Cincinnati. There is something about being 3 miles apart and there have been lots of upsets over the last 30 years. When building a rivalry there is nothing like proximity and upsets to get people emotionally involved?

Dayton is the next biggest rivalry. Again you have the proximity factor, but the rivalry isn’t nearly as interesting because Xavier hasn’t lost at home to UD since Jimmy Carter was president. And most years UD holds court at UD Arena. Regardless of who is invited to the new conference, this one will continue to be an important rivalry into the future.

Since joining the A-10, XU has developed some pretty decent rivalries with Temple and St. Joes. I hope these will continue but I have my doubts. Xavier will already get exposure to Philly by playing Villanova, and Temple will get exposure to Cincinnati by playing UC. When you also factor in that Temple will have 5 OOC Big 6 Games, and St. Joe’s will have 4 OOC Big 6 games it might be tough to get annual games on these teams’ schedules.

Butler has a possibility of becoming a rivalry since they have played a couple of great games in the past couple of years.

St. Louis is a possibility as well, but it doesn’t have a rivalry feel. Don’t get me wrong I get excited for the SLU game every year, but it’s too friendly to be a rivalry. I like SLU and want them to win when they aren’t playing X. You can’t like your rival, that’s just wrong.

The Rivalry I would like to see develop would be XU-Georgetown. I never like Georgetown growing up, and I remember how cool it was going to the Hoosier Dome and seeing little Xavier of Ohio beat the great Hoyas lead by Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo. Xavier winning that game to get to the sweet 16 for the first time is one of my fondest childhood memories. To me that was the game that really put Xavier on the Map. Having Georgetown as a rival would really validate how far XU has come as a program.

[whiteandblue77]

Creighton's biggest rivalry is with Nebraska. The series was always even until we started beating them regularly in the 1940s, when they took us off their schedule and dodged us for 40 years. That's where the programs diverged... Nebraska took a nosedive while the Bluejays were strong in the 50s, 60s and 70s. It wasn't until NU got lots of football money and built the Bob Devaney basketball arena in 1980 (notice they named it after a football coach) when they started playing us again... they're still slightly ahead in the all-time series because we had a bad era in the mid-1990s. We would be up 40 games if they hadn't run away like little girls.

Anyway, CU is was and always will be the strongest program in our state. I think that's one of the reasons we are appealing to the Big East, Fox and what not.

Of course in the BE it will be Marquette and St. Louis, very strongly connected Jesuit institutions.