re: Are college football rivalries still important?

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And that's what i was saying. Sure they are fun, but they aren't the most important thing

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There are far more important things in CFB (i.e. national championships), but you better believe they are important for schools with true rivalries.

Wisconsin and Minnesota have the nation's longest running rivalry and there is sheer hatred between the two schools.

You get a lot of interaction between the two states. Many Wisconsin towns are closer to Minneapolis than they are to Madison/Milwaukee. On the other hand, larger cities in Minnesota (i.e. Rochester) send quite a few HS students to both UW-Madison and the "U." Along that same spectrum, there are plenty of Minneapolis transplants who attend UW-Madison for college (and vice versa). A lot of the crossover between the two states in academia stems from reciprocity. Things will get interesting, though, following Governor Walker's UW System budget proposals.

Gopher fans like to point out the fact that Wisconsin fans seem to think football was "invented" when Barry Alvarez became coach and choose to ignore the past. Somewhat similarly, Minnesota fans like to tout their national championships like it means something to them - reality is, just about all of them have no conscience/were not yet born when those titles were won.

In any case, there are some Wisconsin fans that don't have quite the disdain for Minnesota as they do us due to our sheer dominance over the Gophers on the gridiron (11 straight wins, 18 wins in last 20 meetings) and hardwood (we have gone to 17 straight NCAA Tournament and back-to-back Final Fours).

I've had great times visiting the "U," and it is a solid academic institution, but I despise anything Minnesota Gophers athletics. F them.

Assuming you can't really get to physically hear some of the dislike between the two fan bases, I'd recommend checking out GopherHole and Buckyville. Those are two forums with fans that truly, truly dislike one another.

It is very much important.