Five Intriguing NCAA Football Rivalry Games For 2008

As everyone knows, the college football season is starting to head down the home stretch.

We are approaching—starting this Saturday—my absolute favorite time of the year on the intercollegiate gridiron.

This is the time of the year when ancient grudges are renewed. When hatreds are reborn at the level of the Montagues and the Capulets. Or the Hatfields and the McCoys.

These are the games where obscene banners, gestures, and jokes insulting the other team are commonplace. Where it's truly a miracle that fisticuffs and riots among the students, fans, and even the players don't break out on a more regular basis than they already do.

I think I have described rivalry games pretty well.

College football rivalries take the cake over anything at the professional level. I believe that is safe to say.

Put it this way: The Yankees and the Red Sox meet almost twenty times during the baseball season. If A-Rod hits a walk-off home run off of Jonathan Papelbon to win the game for New York, the Red Sox can just try again the next day.

In college football, however, teams only meet ONCE. If UCLA intercepts a Mark Sanchez pass in the end zone with five seconds left to beat USC, the Trojans can't try again until next December.

You see where I'm getting at?

Among the dozens of civil brawls scheduled over the next three weeks are five that I feel are the most intriguing. 

I'm sure I will get some disagreements, but here are the handful of mini-Civil Wars - which will be played this Saturday - that have gotten my particular interest:

BIG GAME: STANFORD (5-6) vs. CALIFORNIA (6-4)

This Bay Area grudge match, having been played since the 1890s, holds a particular interest this year because of the Stanford Cardinal's situation.

With a team needing six wins to become bowl eligible, Stanford has been trying to get that 6th win for the past few weeks. It would be their first bowl since 2000.

Having lost to Oregon and USC, now the Cardinal has to try and get win number six in Berkeley, against a solid Golden Bear enemy that wants payback—big payback—for losing the Axe to them last year.

MY PICK: CALIFORNIA

It's a close matchup and will be a tough game. Both teams have good weapons, such as Jarvid Best of Cal and Toby Gerhard of Stanford, but the home field advantage that the Bears will enjoy will ultimately prevail.

Among the bands, Stanford would win in an absolute cakewalk, but unfortunately it's not a band competition.

OLD OAKEN BUCKET, INDIANA (3-8) vs. PURDUE (3-8)

These two Big Ten schools have had a long history together.

Neither team has had a good season, which is what makes this game intriguing. This contest is the season for these Hoosiers and Boilermakers.

There's no bowl game at stake, and nothing on the line for either of these institutions from Indiana. Nothing but pride and that old bucket. These people from Bloomington and West Lafayette have absolutely nothing to lose.

Oftentimes that makes for the most exciting games.

MY PICK: PURDUE.

Their athletes seem slightly better, plus it's a home game for them.

TRAP GAME ALERT:

IRON BOWL, AUBURN (5-6) vs. No. 1 ALABAMA (11-0)

"Roll Tide!" versus "War Eagle!"

"Clean, Good Ol' Fashioned Hate"—That's what this rivalry is called. So much so that at one time these two schools didn't play each other for a forty-year period.

Both teams have much to play for. For Auburn, this is the Tigers' last shot to earn bowl eligibility, while the Crimson Tide is trying to stay on track for the BCS championship.

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