2.10.2012

Duquense's Rival: And the winner is...

By Steve DiMiceli


This is the final installment of a four part series on who Duquesne's biggest rival is. If you haven't read them, here are part 1part 2 and part 3

St. Bonaventure.

The Bonnies win out as our biggest rivals on both matrix that I used. When comparing category ranks, St Bonaventure were first in both Mutual ID and the Staying Power while coming in second in Importance. Nobody else won two categories. Their total composite score was 5 points better than anyone else. Here is how the final tallies broke down:



Mutual ID Proximity Importance Staying Power
Dayton 7 11 17 17 52
Pitt 12 20 13 17 62
Robert Morrs 15 17 9 19 60
St Bona 15 10 16 26 67


Bona wins and by a fairly wide margin with Pitt coming in second. The team I expected to triumph was Robert Morris and they actually came in third. Dayton is a fairly distant 4th but I expected that.

Comparatively speaking what kind of a rivalry is St Bonaventure? I looked at a few other higher profile rivalries Duquesne fans are familiar with; Dayton/Xavier, Pitt/WVU and Duke/UNC. All three tested out with more definitive composite scores each scoring above 80 (out of 90). In the end, the Bonnies aren't an intense rivalry in line with the biggest in the sport. A score of around 75 would probably be the dividing line there. I would consider St. Bonaventure, Pitt and Robert Morris to be strong rivals or series scoring between 60-74. Dayton is the next level down, what I would consider modest rivals. Anything under 50 would have to be considered weak. Below 40, it's just two teams playing each other.

There you have it. The Bonnies are our biggest rival. Now try to put a little more hate in your heart tomrorow.