We’ve been going over all the basics of college football and all the differences between college and pro football. But the best part about college football, by far, is the intense rivalries between schools. Many of these heated conflicts date back over a century! And time has not made theirs hearts grow fonder, that’s for sure.

You may laugh, but I would not recommend laughing in the faces of the fans. They take these really seriously. They have the potential to divide households and friendships….it can get ugly, fast.

Most of them can be broken down into four categories:

1. In State Rivalries
2. Private vs. Public Schools
3. Border Wards
4. Trophy Rivalries

In-State Rivalries

Every state has a flagship campus, typically called the University of Your State, whose student body and alumni feel they are entitled to, well, pretty much whatever they want within state lines. That same state probably has another school — usually denoted by the words State, Tech, or A&M — that gets treated by the former like some Cinderella like stepchild.

And just like Cinderella’s sibling rivalry, these in-state matchups are usually pretty intense.

Here’s the deal: The State Schools hate their Bigger University Stepbrother. Bigger Stepbrother always ignores Lil State, opting to focus on it’s main rivals – (like the other big name schools in the country: Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma, etc.)

And just like ignoring a younger sibling will irriate the crap out of them, ignoring Lil State makes them hate Big University even more. Which makes the University pretend not to notice them even more, which makes the State even madder and madder because, HEY, WE’RE RIGHT HERE IN YOUR BACKYARD AND THIS IS THE YEAR WE WILL STOMP YOUR POMPOUS FAT $@%*ES!” -Paraphrased from Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News

Key In-State Rivalries

• Alabama/Auburn: This is the epitome of rivalry. It divides the state, tears apart families… the whole works. It’s so intense that when the game in 1907 ended in a tie, they didn’t play each other again until 1948 when it took an act of state government to force them to play each other!
• Florida/Florida State
• Kentucky/Louisville
• Oregon/Oregon State
• Texas/Texas A&M
• Virginia/Virginia Tech

Private vs. Public Schools

Public-Private School rivalries are….interesting. Where there is a big public university, there is usually a smaller, more elite, private school nearby. Sometimes artsy, sometimes Ivy-league-esque; but always more privileged.

See, the private schools get all the cash. They have fancy-schmancy campuses with gorgeous buildings and private funding. They get to be more selective with their applicants and scholarships. The public schools, on the other hand, have to claw and fight for every dime to support their school and have lower admission standards.

But..those public schools usually have the bigger, badder sports teams! It’s their one shot to show up the rich kids in the mansion down the way.

Key Private/Public School Rivalries:

• Florida State/Miami
• North Carolina/Duke (their basketball rivalry is even more intense!)
• UCLA/USC

Border Wars

Instead of being an in-state rivalry, border wars are interstate. The border being the state lines that separate the two schools. To be honest, I don’t completely understand why these rivalries are so intense, although I have been told it has a lot to do with recruiting. Meaning one state will often poach star athletes from the other.

But I do know where the border war concept originated and let me tell ya, that rivalry is seriously intense. It actually dates way back into the Civil War. Kansas was anti-slavery, it’s next door neighbor Missouri was pro. It culminated in a very bloody massacre in Lawrence, Kansas. After the Civil War, the schools’ athletics departments tried to get the teams together to try to patch the rift. But over a century later, the rift is still there.

“It’s more than the schools — it’s a state thing going back to the Civil War, when William Quantrill’s Confederate guerillas burned Lawrence and murdered nearly 200 people. Neither Missouri nor Kansas folks have forgotten it.”–SI.com supervising producer Dan George, according to Wikipedia.

Their rivalry is one of the bitterest and most hateful rivalries in all of college sports. None of the other rivalries are as deeply rooted as the original, but their animosities are pretty legendary in the college football world.

Key Border Wars Rivalries:

• Kansas/Missouri
• Georgia/Florida: Known as: “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” Yay!
• Ohio State/Michigan: Rated on ESPN as one of the best sports (note, sports, not just football) rivalries of all time. The two teams have combined for over 70 Big Ten titles.
• Texas/Oklahoma: “The Red River Shootout”. The winning team’s state is supposed to get ownership of the Red River for one year until the next game.
• Pitt/West Virginia
• LSU/Arkansas
  
• Maryland/Virginia
  
• Tennessee/Alabama

Trophy Games

So at the end of the season, the national champs get a shiny crystal trophy to commemorate their win. But throughout the season, there are other big trophies at stake. Crystal, they are not. It can be as mundane as an old brown jug from 1901, or as heavy as the175 pound boot shaped trophy made in 1996. To the schools in these rivalries, these trophies are priceless.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here. Just a few examples with the funny trophies they play for. But I highly recommend looking them up and reading about it. They are actually really interesting stories that date waaaaay back. Usually more than a century old!

Key Trophy Game Rivalries…and the trophy

• Texas/Oklahoma: The Golden Hat (a replica of a 10gallon hat) & a few other novelties
• Arkansas/LSU: The Golden Boot (175 pound trophy in the shape of a freaking boot….)

• Purdue/Indiana: The Old Oaken Bucket
• Minnesota/Michigan: The Little Brown Jug
• Ohio State/Michigan: Bo Schembechler’s Hat

• California/Stanford: Stanford Ax
• Minnesota/Wisconsin: Paul Bunyan’s axe. The handle of the axe is over 6 feet long! This rivalry is actually the oldest and most played in DI history! Goes all the way back to 1890

The Biggest Rivals Of them All….

Would have to be Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish fight with just about everyone. The sad thing is, no one seems to care about the scrappy little leprechauns trying to do battle with the football giants! Their rivalries used to be more intense back in the day, but now the “rivalries” are mostly there for the sake of them being able to say they have “rivals”

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!

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