What would a rivalry be without a good bit of schadenfreude. Purdue is loving the current state of affairs of the basketball program in Hoosier country and Hoosiers are feeling more optimistic than usual when it comes to the head to head on the football front. The best part about the Purdue-IU rivalry is that even some of the lesser covered sports mean life and death when these two schools go head to head. Hell, we spend more time than is healthy fighting over who has the better racing event in the Little 500 or the Grand Prix. Quite frankly it is a little ridiculous but personally I wouldn't have it any other way.
This past weekend was a pretty full weekend for Indiana University athletics and especially the Crimson and Gold Cup. The end of the weekend marked the end of the Winter Sports competitions between the two schools. Indoor Track, Swimming, Basketball and Wrestling all went head to head over the cold months and we'll take a look at where the two schools stand after the dust has settled.
The way the points work is that head to head competition of each sports adds up to one whole point for the year. So like the football team's that only play once, that game is worth one point. The basketball teams play twice a year so each game is worth a half a point and one total for the year. After the fall seasons of Volleyball, Football, Cross Country and Women's Soccer (Purdue has no men's team) IU was looking at a lead of 3-2, thanks to the distance runners and the football team's overtime win.
The Winter season then began in January with women's basketball squaring off. After the first four head to head battles of the winter season things were not looking so good for IU's pride. Not only were we losing but none of the games were all that close. The women's bball team dropped two, the men dropped one at West Lafayette and the wrestlers ended their regular season with a 12-21 loss at Purdue. The run of victories gave Purdue a 4.5-3 half way through the winter. Luckily, that lead wasn't going to hold.
In the span of 10 days that 1.5 point lead evaporated and turned into a 2 point deficit. Both Swimming teams and the Track teams were able to put Purdue away in a Big Ten Championships setting to garner 4 points. In between those games the basketball team dropped another one but it was a good enough series by everyone else that IU now has a 7-5 lead in the Crimson and Gold Cup. Now the winter sports are wrapping up and no more head to head competitions will occur. It is up to the spring sports to bring it home.
There are 8 points left to gain and for those of you who aren't good with math, that means IU only needs to take 4 of those 8 to guarantee a win and 3 to garner a tie. Both tennis teams meet in action on March 12 to kick off the spring season and then we have to wait until the end of April to see a resolution. The golf teams meet at the end of April in the Big Ten Championships and the baseball team has a weekend series on April 29. The series games are for all the marbles. The winner of the three games series takes the whole point. Softball and Outdoor Track meet May 12-14 to finish the athletic season. How it will all end we'll see... hopefully the way I think it will, with another IU victory.