What makes a football rivalry




















After dominating the series for more than a decade, Army has won the past three meetings. Regardless of the records, this game remains a huge draw and still thrills fans across the country. Most importantly, it pits future military and government leaders against each other as they fight for their Academies and provide the country with an afternoon of prideful competition.

When Bill Curry was coaching at Alabama, he went to a Birmingham elementary school one day to speak with children about football and life.

Upon entering the classroom, he saw a boy standing in the corner, sobbing. Curry wondered what was going on, and a student told him, "Jason is an Auburn fan, and we took care of him. Truth be told, it isn't all right to be an Auburn fan — if you follow the Tide.

Tiger fans feel the same way about Bama. In a state with no major professional sports team, Auburn-Alabama football is a religion. Curry's minister once told him it was more important. It has been that way from the game's earliest days, which proved to be so contentious that the schools stopped playing each other for 41 years.

Once they resumed hostilities, they did so at a geographically neutral site, in Birmingham, but Auburn fans groused for decades because Legion Field was the Tide's home away from home. That changed when the game moved to campus, but the vitriol has not abated. Fans of both teams crave victory, and a loss means a full year of misery from friends, co-workers and even family members. And for the first time in Iron Bowl history, an SEC West and trip to the BCS national championship hung in the balance in when the Tigers won with the most improbable play in college football history.

Auburn Rivalry History. Some think the story is a tall tale, but others swear it's true. After his Ohio State team scored its final touchdown late in a rout of Michigan at the end of the season, Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes elected to go for two points, instead of kicking the PAT.

Rest assured that Wolverine fans harbor no affection for the Buckeyes, either. The schools have met every year but five since — the teams' first game was in — and their contests have become appointment viewing for much of the country, late in November, usually under gun-metal gray skies with a hint of winter in the air.

More important, Big Ten supremacy is usually at stake, especially since Bo Schembechler took over in Ann Arbor in to turn the U-M fortunes around and provide an irascible counterbalance to the cantankerous Hayes. Since that point, Michigan-Ohio State has been the nation's most consistently competitive and heated rivalry. Because the games have so much significance and occur at season's end, a loss can be doubly haunting. Not only does the vanquished team lose to a hated foe, but its season can be destroyed also.

There may be games that match these schools' animosity for each other, and there may be contests that are as consistently important. But none combines the two into such a volatile package. This rivalry has some extra punch since with the arrival of Jim Harbaugh as Michigan's coach, although he's still looking for his first win in the series as Ohio State has won the past eight meetings this game was not played in Ohio State College Football Rivalry.

One of the most unique characteristics about the Cotton Bowl in Dallas is both locker rooms empty into a common corridor, so that players take the field through the same tunnel. Instead, they decided to enjoin the fight on the gridiron, in front of 95,plus fans divided evenly into crimson and burnt orange enclaves. Rarely has the flame from the ensuing collision failed to heat the passions of all in attendance. The neighbors harbor a significant dislike for each other, and tempers have boiled over many times on nights before the game.

And plenty of Lone Star football talent has headed north to Norman, especially when Barry Switzer was pillaging the state's top programs for all-stars. But what makes the oldest football rivalry in the West truly special is the proximity of the schools, only a minute drive apart. Notable game: In , the game produced one of the most memorable plays in sports history. Led by quarterback John Elway, Stanford took a lead on a field goal with seconds left.

But California returned the ensuing squib kick for a touchdown, thanks to five laterals and inadvertent interference from the Stanford band, which had prematurely come onto the field. The fans are roughly split at the Cotton Bowl, which seats 92, The Sooners held a lead late and appeared to have intercepted Texas in the end zone to seal the upset win, but officials ruled the pass incomplete. Texas kicked a field goal, and the game ended in a tie.

In their rivalry game against Yale, Harvard scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds of the tie. What makes it special: There is a long-running history of pranks that accompany this game between Ivy League schools.

Kennedy , a Harvard graduate, would attend the game. Notable game: For the first time since , both teams were unbeaten heading into the game, which ended in a tie. Playing well past the whistle on almost every play, the Mountaineers managed to slow down the game itself, with at least three stoppages for extracurriculars in the first half. Those all came before the Oklahoma offense and West Virginia defense got sideways yet again just before the half, and Oklahoma lineman Dru Samia got ejected. Objectively, maybe the best unsung categorical rivalry?

Two teams located an hour and 20 minutes apart, fighting over many of the same recruits and territory, play at the end of each season for both maximum dramatic framing and because they share a division actual stakes. Occasionally, one of them might be angling for a national title, or at least an undefeated season they will claim as a national title. That team might go a little too far with this, and that is their right and privilege as Americans. American is an important angle here. The AAC is a fine football conference like any other.

USF had Quinton Flowers , the archetypical Great In College Quarterback who put up massive, streaky numbers for the Bulls, including consecutive seasons with over 2, yards passing and a thousand yards rushing. Because we cannot pay Quinton Flowers for all the joy he brought in college, please: Some team keep Quinton Flowers on an NFL roster long enough to pick up a pension.

This series lacks a whole lot of off-the-field drama, but wait on that. By this, I mean that it could involve hurricanes, a deposed governor, the Army Corps of Engineers accidentally opening up sinkholes beneath both stadiums, some heavy insurance fraud related and unrelated to the sinkholed stadiums , and several people in the crowd being eaten or kidnapped or both.

This is the best rivalry in Florida right now, and that is before remembering that the whole thing is named after a sun-blasted stretch of highway dotted with spectacular car wrecks and terrifying anti-abortion billboards. Ole Miss - Mississippi State. The hypothesis here: The Egg Bowl is the only rivalry in college football where both teams somehow lose the game every year. While life is pain, the Egg Bowl remains the drug for people who need a deeper, more powerful brand of existential agony.

Last-minute, game-tying TD drives do not fail quietly. Ole Miss needed a win to get bowl-eligible in , and instead took a hefty, brick straight in the teeth. He ran for yards that day. Mullen can be, for lack of a more accurate word, a real dick in a rivalry situation.

There is so much more. Both schools constantly rat each other out to the NCAA. An actual stated point of pride, since open flame is banned at The Grove, and the food is — spits on ground — catered.

It is the biggest rivalry in English football and up there with the best in the world. The North London derby is one of the oldest and fiercest derbies in England. The battle for supremacy in North London has been long-standing between Tottenham and Arsenal. The first recalled match between the two clubs can be dated back to This was a move that was opposed by Tottenham which now saw Arsenal become their closest rivals.

Further fuel was added to the rivalry in when the league was to be expanded by two clubs via a vote. Chelsea and Tottenham were the favourites to get the nod with Chelsea in 19th getting the first spot.

Tottenham who were in 20th position lost the vote to Arsenal who only finished fifth in the second division. They lost their place in the first division and were replaced by their rivals. This infuriated all involved with the club and thus began the rivalry. There have been a total of games played between the two clubs with Arsenal coming out on top with 82 wins. The only season since the s where the two teams were not in the same division was Arsenal have always had bragging rights in this fixture due to their success on the trophy front.

Gloating between both sets of fans is something that we are used to seeing at these matches, no matter the occasion. It is never a friendly encounter between the two clubs, as both desperately want to beat the other. In Spurs finally broke a year spell of finishing below Arsenal in the league.

Only eight players have played for both clubs in North London derby history, with Jimmy Robertson and Emmanuel Adebayor the only players to have scored for both in the derby.

It is a bold move to make, which we have not seen in quite some time. It has been an area in decline for quite some time with the loss and closure of steelworks, shipyards and docks, leading to a rise in unemployment. The rivalry between both cities traces back to the 17th Century when Royalist forces were pitted against Parliamentarian ones.

This split both cities as Newcastle took to the Royalists and Sunderland were pro-Parliamentarian. They would always find themselves on opposite sides when it came to politics.

This opposing of one another would be taken into football. The first match between the two clubs was in , and since then both clubs are split for bragging rights with both having 53 victories apiece and 50 draws. It is one of the most intense affairs as it is a rivalry that splits both families and friends in the area. There have been multiple occasions of outbreaks and violence occurring at these games due to the nature of the fixture and the passion and hatred involved.

It is a rivalry that is missed in the Premier League, and we look forward to seeing it one day again. The Manchester derby needs no introduction as it is one of the most famous derbies in football.

The history of both these clubs is genuinely unique, and their first meeting against each other was in , except they went under different names at this time. United were known as Newtown Heath, while City went by St. The grounds are separated by 4 miles, and it is another example of where families are split in support of the two clubs. The rivalry was not as hostile back then as it was just seen as two local clubs making their way in the English game, but that has recently changed.



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