It’s one of the most heated debates in Champaign and, no, it’s not how much Kelvin Sampson had to pay Eric Gordon to come to the dark side and skip out on Illinois. The Fighting Illini have never had a clearly defined rival and it’s an issue that has never been resolved – up until these two past weeks, that is. Who is Illinois’ biggest rival?

Before starting the debate, let’s cut to the obvious: rivals must be competitive with each other each season in the two major college sports – football and basketball – and have to be teams that are in the same conference.

Because Kansas is not in the same conference as Illinois, the Jayhawks and former basketball coach Bill Self cannot be considered. Some say Missouri is Illinois’ biggest rival. Illinois and Mizzou even have the Braggin’ Rights basketball game in Mid-December and pack the Savvis Center in St. Louis, but the Illini have won the last six contests and the games don’t really mean a thing come March.

The Big Ten conference cuts Illinois’ choices to ten, and teams like Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin are schools that are obvious choices for elimination. All six do not match up with Illinois’ recent success in basketball and equally recent futility in football.

That leaves Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State.

Like any good countdown, let’s eliminate the obvious ones first.

Although “Muck Fichigan” T-shirts are seen all over campus every time the Wolverines come to town, this really is a no-brainer. In basketball, Illinois continually dominates, while in football Michigan holds a 65-21 all-time series lead and is 7-1 against the Illini in the last 10 years. We might hate the Maize and Blue, but the hate is nothing close to being mutual.

No.1 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan lay claim to the biggest rivalry in college football – the first Bowl Championship Series ranking of the season only confirmed this.

Michigan’s strongest in-state rivalry is with Michigan State and some may say the Spartans are also Illinois’ biggest rivalry. Tom Izzo, the coach responsible for returning MSU to elite basketball status, is 10-9 against Illinois in his tenure, and the Illini are 52-47 in the all-time series, numbers that speak for itself in regards to competitiveness with basketball. Besides Illinois’ “Battle Royale” with the Spartans at midfield on Michigan State’s Homecoming, this is nothing but a friendly rivalry. Izzo and Bruce Weber are known friends, with Izzo backing up Weber’s recent Gordon family struggles.

Iowa has the makings of a great rivalry, right? Iowa City is a little less than four hours away, and let’s face it, almost everyone who goes to Iowa only goes there because they received a rejection letter from Illinois. Both of these are huge factors in building up hatred for one another. Illinois leads the all-time football series 37-27, but Iowa has beaten Illinois by a combined score of 123-37 in the last four games. The all-time series is also misleading – one team or the other is always awful and the other seems to easily take care of them, crushing them in relatively convincing fashion.

Indiana, not Michigan, Michigan State, or Iowa, easily takes the prize for Illinois’ biggest rival. With the developments in the past couple months, this should remain heated for years to come. The Illini and the Hoosiers consistently square off for the title of worst football team in the Big Ten. With Indiana’s surprise comeback win against the Illini on Homecoming at Memorial Stadium, the hatred reached a new high.

But not for long.

Controversy always helps rekindle past rivalries and the Gordon controversy has done just that. Though the official announcement came just days ago, anti-Gordon/Sampson/Hoosier facebook groups are popping up faster than the Arizona Cardinals can give up a game. Illinois basketball fans have longed for someone to yell at on the sidelines ever since Bobby Knight left Bloomington.

I think we’ve found our man.

Troy Murray is a junior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].