College Football's 25 All-Time Best Rivalry Games
The players and coaches change, but the passion and history between college football rivals never goes away. The combination of pride for one's own side and a healthy mix of hatred and respect—mostly the former—for the opponent is what fuels college football and keeps the game so popular.
Rivalries are the life blood of the sport, and those games are always among the most anticipated on the schedule each season. For many fanbases, a win against their rival makes the season a success, regardless of what happens the rest of the year, while a loss in that game is often a harder pill to swallow than falling in the national championship.
Every college football fan likely thinks their team's rivalry game is the best around, which again is part of why we love this sport so much. But even rivalries aren't all created equal, so we've ranked the 25 best. To do this, we factored in the history and longevity of a rivalry, the closeness of the series and its resonance on a national scale.
25. Baylor-TCU
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First year played: 1899
Series history: Tied, 52-52-7
Baylor and TCU might seem like new rivals to most college football fans, since TCU just joined the Big 12 in 2012. But the Bears and Horned Frogs have been playing since the end of the 19th century, and from 1923-95, they were members of the Southwest Conference.
Plenty of notable games occurred in the series during that span, but it's because of how their meetings this decade have gone that we've included them in our top 25. Starting with a 50-48 TCU win in 2011, the average margin has been 8.6 points (bloated by a 49-21 TCU win in 2012), and three have been decided by three or fewer points.
The 2014 game was one for the ages, with Baylor rallying from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit to win, 61-58, at home. Then last year, they toiled through heavy rain and frigid temperatures as well as two overtimes before TCU claimed a 28-21 home victory.
24. Arizona-Arizona State
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First year played: 1899
Series history: Arizona leads, 48-40-1
The first Arizona-Arizona State football game came 13 years before statehood, or the Wildcats and Sun Devils might play each year for a different piece of hardware. Instead, they battle for the Territorial Cup, which the NCAA recognizes as the oldest trophy in college football.
It's also one that disappeared for quite a long time, its whereabouts unknown until it was discovered "in a church basement close to Tempe" in 1980, according to the State Press' Nick Krueger.
Often the last regular-season game for both teams, the series has been balanced over the last three decades. Since 1988 each school has won 14 games.
23. Auburn-Georgia
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First year played: 1892
Series history: Georgia leads, 56-55-8
Quite a few rivalry games that are still being played today originated in 1892, including the Big Game between Cal and Stanford and in-state clashes between Illinois and Northwestern and Tennessee and Vanderbilt. It's also the year North Carolina and Virginia first played a game that's become known as the South's Oldest Rivalry.
Even though its first game was in October of that year, while Auburn and Georgia met for the first time in February 1892.
Nowadays this might lead to an Internet debate on the level of "What color is the dress?" or "Is a hot dog a sandwich?," but back then, Auburn and Georgia just decided to call their game the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. Crisis averted.
Auburn and Georgia were charter members of the SEC in 1932, but since 1992, they've been in opposite divisions. However, they remain on each other's schedule as traditional crossover rivals, meeting on the second or third Saturday of November every year since the 1940s.
22. Oklahoma-Oklahoma State
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First year played: 1904
Series history: Oklahoma leads, 85-18-7
Whoever first said “numbers never lie” obviously wasn't a big college football fan, otherwise they'd know there are always some exceptions. The Bedlam series between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State is one of those, as despite Oklahoma's incredibly lopsided edge in the 110-game series, that margin doesn't tell the true story of their rivalry.
Oklahoma State has never won more than two consecutive meetings against the Sooners, while Oklahoma has win streaks of 19, 15 and 11 straight over the Cowboys. It's been a little closer of late, with OK State winning twice in the last five seasons, and two of the last four have gone to overtime.
Not including ties, 26 games have been decided by single digits including four times since 2010.
21. Lafayette-Lehigh
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First year played: 1884
Series history: Lafayette leads, 78-68-5
Quick, name a player from either Lafayette or Lehigh who went on to play in the NFL. Don't feel bad if you can't, since the schools have combined for just 12 draft picks in their history.
If you know anything about the rivalry between the Leopards and Mountain Hawks—simply known as The Rivalry—it's that it's been played more times than any other college football series. The 151 meetings are 13 more than Yale-Princeton, and early on, they met twice a year and once played three times in a season.
To honor the 150th meeting, played in 2014, the Pennsylvania-based teams moved the contest to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. More than 48,000 people watched Lafayette roll to a 27-7 win, with Leopards running back Ross Scheuerman rushing for a Patriot League-record 304 yards.
20. Mississippi State-Ole Miss
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First year played: 1901
Series history: Ole Miss leads, 63-43-6
There are no actual eggs involved in rivalry game between Mississippi State and Ole Miss, as far as we can tell. Yet since 1927, the winner has received the Golden Egg Trophy, and since 1979, the game has been referred to as the Egg Bowl.
You do you, Bulldogs and Rebels.
In reality, the gold-plated trophy has a football at its top, but since footballs in the old days were less oblong, they looked a bit like giant eggs—and the name stuck. And as we in the media are known to do, the game earned its nickname thanks to a sports writer—Tom Patterson, editor of the Clarion-Ledger, according to Ole Miss' official website—who “decided to do something extra to spice up coverage of the annual grudge match.”
The game itself is good, too, though it doesn't often draw the kind of national attention as other rivalries.
19. Minnesota-Wisconsin
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First year played: 1890
Series history: Minnesota leads, 59-58-8
Minnesota and Wisconsin might not have the most popular college football rivalry or the one that's had the most national resonance, but it's got one thing that no other series can claim: 125 meetings and counting.
It's college football's most-played FBS rivalry, one that has only been interrupted by presidential intervention. In 1906, Teddy Roosevelt "decided to cool off heated college football rivalries, because of injuries and deaths on the field," according to Minnesota's website. That hiatus lasted just one year, and since then, nothing has gotten in the way of the battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe.
Yes, there's a weapon at stake when these Big Ten rivals clash, and the winning team shows no restraint in swinging that axe around afterward. That's been Wisconsin for the past 12 years, and a 13th straight win will tie the series at 59 victories apiece.
18. California-Stanford
8 of 25First year played: 1892
Series history: Stanford leads, 61-46-11
Every college football team has played in big games, but only California and Stanford can say their annual meetings qualify as a proper noun.
The Big Game is the oldest rivalry in the West, started a year before Colorado and Colorado State and two years before Oregon and Oregon State started their Civil War.
A handful of their earliest meetings, in the 1900s and early 1910s, were actually rugby matches during a period when both schools had dropped football out of safety concerns. But since 1919, it's been football-only and only interrupted by World War II causing Stanford to temporarily suspend its program for three years.
And like most longstanding rivalries, there have been plenty of memorable moments and plays. But only one that, again, was deemed worthy of capitalization. The above video is footage of The Play, the kickoff return at the end of the 1982 meeting that saw California use a bunch of laterals and some key blocks by Stanford's band to score the winning touchdown with no time left.
17. UCLA-USC
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First year played: 1929
Series history: USC leads, 45-31-7
UCLA and USC laugh at your piddly in-state or inter-state rivalries. When it comes to a real battle, nothing beats one where a city of 4 million people is at stake.
Separated by just 12 miles—which, depending on the time of day, can take hours to travel—these schools have been going at it for more than 80 years, but it's been during the past two decades that the rivalry has become more popular. That's because the departure of both of the region's NFL teams made Los Angeles a college football town.
Much like the Los Angeles Lakers and other area pro sports teams have been magnets for celebrities, so too are the UCLA and USC sidelines for football.
16. Florida-Florida State
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First year played: 1958
Series history: Florida leads, 34-24-2
Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher has done two main things to endear himself to Seminoles fans: bring them a national championship and turn the tables on the rivalry with Florida. Before he took over for Bobby Bowden in 2010, the 'Noles had lost six in a row and saw the hated Gators claim a pair of national titles in the process.
Since Fisher has been in charge, FSU is 5-1 against Florida and has held the Gators to seven or fewer points in four of those meetings.
While the Florida-FSU rivalry has been around for less time than anything else on our list, it's still got plenty of history. Its heyday was from 1990-2000, when Bowden and Steve Spurrier had their teams regularly at or near the top of the rankings. For 11 straight years, both schools were in the AP Top 10 when they met, and the winner in six of those seasons went on to play for a national title.
15. Georgia-Georgia Tech
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First year played: 1893
Series history: Georgia leads, 65-40-5
Georgia and Georgia Tech fans don't like each other, but Southern hospitality prevents them from being too mean and disrespectful. Instead, the Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets engage in Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate.
The Peach State's two oldest colleges have met every year since 1924, and though most things have been civilized, the rivalry isn't without its subtle jabs. This includes in lyrical form. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that since 1908 the Georgia Tech fight song has included the line "to hell with Georgia," while Georgia fans change the last line of "Glory, Glory" to say "to hell with Georgia Tech" when the teams meet.
Though in different conferences, Georgia and Georgia Tech meet up on the final week of the regular season after completing their respective SEC and ACC slates.
14. Clemson-South Carolina
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First year played: 1896
Series history: Clemson leads, 67-42-4
A recent three-year moratorium on new bowl games has put the kibosh on plans by several cities to join the bowl party, including Charleston and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. If new bowls are ever allowed again, though, neither of these locales can be called the Palmetto Bowl because that name's been taken.
Clemson and South Carolina officially dubbed their longstanding rivalry as that in 2014, though it's been the unofficial title of this in-state clash between ACC and SEC schools for quite a while.
The Tigers and Gamecocks have met every year since 1909 and is the second-longest uninterrupted series at the FBS level, trailing only Minnesota and Wisconsin (played annually since 1907).
13. Notre Dame-USC
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First year played: 1926
Series history: Notre Dame leads, 46-36-5
With all due respect to Alabama and LSU, when it comes to a college football rivalry with the biggest all-time impact on the NFL, there's no comparison to Notre Dame and USC. Including the 11 players they had picked last month, the Fighting Irish and Trojans have combined to produce 990 NFL draft picks in their history.
And in most cases, those future pro standouts from Notre Dame and USC stood out against each other.
It's not just about the prevalence of NFL prospects that makes this rivalry so big; they've also produced a combined 13 Heisman Trophy winners—14 if you count USC's Reggie Bush, who had his 2005 Heisman stripped—and together the schools have 22 national titles.
12. Florida State-Miami
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First year played: 1951
Series history: Miami leads, 31-29
While conference realignment has damaged many college football rivalries and flat-out eliminated others, in the case of Florida State and Miami, it actually made theirs better. Miami's move to the ACC in 2004 made the annual clash between two of Florida's Big Three have more than just bragging rights on the line.
Now it can impact division titles, though Florida State beat the Hurricanes en route to each of its five Atlantic Division crowns, and Miami has yet to win the Coastal.
Miami has only beaten the Seminoles three times since joining the ACC in 2004, the last time in 2009, but before they were league rivals, the 'Canes had the upper hand. They won five straight nonconference meetings, the last coming in the 2004 Orange Bowl nine months before they met again (with Miami winning for the sixth straight time) in their first ACC clash.
11. Nebraska-Oklahoma
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First year played: 1912
Series history: Oklahoma leads, 45-38-3
It took both a conference expansion and then a realignment to fully tear apart the storied rivalry between Nebraska and Oklahoma, teams that have combined for 12 national titles, and in many years, they were both in contention for a championship.
They're set to play again in 2021, the first of four meetings on the docket, which will end an 11-year drought in the series. Their last meeting came in the 2010 Big 12 championship, won by Oklahoma, while their last regular-season clash came when Nebraska won at home in 2009.
Despite a relatively close overall record in the series, each team has had periods of dominance. Nebraska went 16-3-3 between 1912-42, then Oklahoma ran off 16 in a row on the Cornhuskers. Thirteen times has the game involved the Associated Press' No. 1 team, including No. 1 vs. No. 2 meetings in 1971 and 1987.
10. Texas-Texas A&M
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First year played: 1894
Series history: Texas leads, 76-37-5
The Big 12 Conference is looking into adding to its ranks, which has stood at 10 since 2011. That's the year Colorado left for the Pac-12 and Nebraska went to the Big Ten, but the real blow came a year later when Missouri and Texas A&M bolted to the SEC.
Though the league responded by adding TCU and West Virginia, it still lost two of the best rivalries in college football in the Border War (Kansas and Missouri) and the one between Texas and Texas A&M.
No fancy nickname needed for this bitter feud, which was uninterrupted for 97 years and played most often on Thanksgiving. That includes the final meeting, on Nov. 24, 2011, won by Texas on a field goal as time expired.
Will it ever resume? Who knows, but there's always hope...and the dream that some bowl game will bring them together.
9. Florida-Georgia
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First year played: 1915
Series history: Georgia leads, 49-42-2*
When schools can't even agree when their rivalry actually started, you know there's some bad blood.
According to Georgia, its first win over Florida came in 1904 when it won, 52-0, against a team from a school that eventually became known as Florida Agricultural College. The official University of Florida wasn't created until 1905, had its first football field in 1906 and counts its first meeting with Georgia as happening in 1915.
That was also a shutout loss, but who's counting?
These schools from bordering states now meet on an annual basis in Jacksonville, where the atmosphere in and around the stadium gave credence to the rivalry earning the name, World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Neither school uses this moniker anymore, but we're not bound by such rules.
As for the games themselves, many have gone a long way toward determining the SEC East Division champion. Florida and Georgia have combined for 16 division titles since 1992, with all 11 of Florida's titles coming in years when they beat the Bulldogs, while Georgia has lost three times to the Gators yet still claimed the East crown.
8. Pittsburgh-West Virginia
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First year played: 1895
Series history: Pittsburgh leads, 61-40-3
Remember those impromptu football games you and your friends used to have as kids, played on whatever piece of grass or dirt you could find? You know, the ones that more often than not ended in someone getting ticked off at another person, leading to a scuffle?
Yeah, that's what the Backyard Brawl was like between old rivals Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Located about 75 miles apart and connected by Interstate 79, the Panthers and Mountaineers met every year from 1943 to 2011 before West Virginia left the Big East for the Big 12 and Pitt later left for the ACC.
Since then, trying to get Pitt and West Virginia to meet again has been a frequent topic of discussion, but no real traction was made until both schools went through an athletic leadership change that something happened. Last September, the schools announced they would once again meet in football, agreeing to a four-year series—but not until 2022.
7. Kansas-Missouri
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First year played: 1891
Series history: Missouri leads, 57-54-9
Kansas was one of two winless FBS teams in 2015 and is riding a 15-game losing streak, while Missouri is coming off a dismal 5-7 season in which it went 33 days without scoring a touchdown. Yet had The Border War been part of each school's schedule, there would have been something worth getting excited about.
Sadly, Kansas and Missouri haven't met since 2011, the last year that Missouri was part of the Big 12. Now in the SEC, the Tigers end their regular season against Arkansas (and play for the newly created Battle Line Trophy), while Kansas has finished up with in-state rival Kansas State the past three years. But it's just not the same.
The Border War wasn't regularly a game that had major implications outside of its region. Neither school has won a national title. Though in 2007, each was ranked in the Top Three in the AP poll, and Missouri's win lifted it to first in the nation (before losing to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game). Results aside, it's still the oldest FBS rivalry west of the Mississippi River and one that we hope will some day resume.
6. BYU-Utah
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First year played: 1896
Series history: Utah leads, 58-34-4
We didn't use rivalry names as part of our ranking criteria, because if we did, the Holy War might have been enough to put BYU and Utah at the top of the list. That's also the name attached to the series between Boston College and Notre Dame, but those schools have only met 23 times and only since 1975 and share a common religious bond.
The same can't be said between BYU, which is a private school owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church), while Utah is a public school operated by the state. And when they meet in any sport, not just football, it's easy to see why "war" is in the game's title.
BYU and Utah were conference rivals from 1922 to 2010, most recently in the Mountain West, before BYU went independent in 2011. The series has been off and on since then, with no regular-season games in 2014 or 2015, but they ended up getting matched up in last year's Las Vegas Bowl.
That game sold out less than 22 hours after being officially announced.
5. Harvard-Yale
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First year played: 1875
Series history: Yale leads, 65-59-8
The Harvard-Yale rivalry is one of the oldest in college football, dating back to when only a handful of schools even played the sport. And each time these Ivy League members meet, there's a feeling like it's no different than when they played for the first time more than 140 years ago.
Because they play at the FCS level (and the Ivy League doesn't participate in the playoffs), this game is essentially a bowl and a championship all wrapped up into one. These teams have combined to win 28 league titles, many of them clinched by one beating the other to end the season.
It's been a one-sided affair of late, though, as Harvard has claimed nine straight meetings and lost only once since 2001.
4. Michigan-Ohio State
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First year played: 1897
Series history: Michigan leads, 58-47-6
When governors, the alphabet and wardrobe restrictions get involved, you know it's a big rivalry.
Michigan and Ohio State have faced off at the end of the regular season almost every year since the mid-1930s—exceptions including in 1986 and 1998 when Michigan played in Hawaii the following week—and it's routinely been a game that has impacted the Big Ten standings and played a role in the national championship picture.
But what makes the game known commonly as The Game rank so high on this list is the effect it has on not just two fanbases but two entire states. Famed Ohio State coach Woody Hayes did whatever he could to avoid saying his rival's name, instead calling Michigan "that team up north." In turn, Michigan people often refer to OSU as "Ohio."
Ohio governor John Kasich has added to the quirky nature of the rivalry during his tenure, first banning the letter M on game day and later putting a ban on khakis—which have become a staple of current Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.
3. Oklahoma-Texas
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First year played: 1900
Series history: Texas leads, 61-44-5
Most people go to the state fair to check out the livestock, go on some rides and eat something that's fried (and likely on a stick). But the Texas State Fair has an attraction that's completely unique in that it annually plays host to one of the bitterest rivalries in college football.
Oklahoma and Texas have waged the Red River Showdown in Dallas' Cotton Bowl since 1932. Despite its location deep in the heart of the Lone Star State, the stadium is routinely split down the middle between fans wearing the crimson and cream of Oklahoma and those donning Texas' burnt orange. It's locked into that site through at least 2025, always on the first or second Saturday of October.
The game's name is derived from the river that separates the states, a body of water that was at the center of a conflict between Oklahoma and Texas over bridges. Not surprisingly, coaches and players associated with the rivalry have no qualms about burning bridges between each other.
Because they play in the middle of the season, the game doesn't often have a direct impact on the national championship picture, but it's still big in terms of rankings. At least one team has been ranked in the AP Top 25 every year since 1947 except in 1997 and 1998.
2. Alabama-Auburn
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First year played: 1893
Series history: Alabama leads, 44-35-1
The Iron Bowl has always been a big college football rivalry, but in the past decade, it's managed to rise to another level thanks to its near-constant impact on the national championship. Since Nick Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007, the winner of the Alabama-Auburn game has either played for the national title or reached the playoffs six times.
But to truly understand the hatred between the schools, you have to go back to the series' early days more than 100 years ago. They've only played 80 times, with no meetings from 1908-47, the hiatus blamed on variety of reasons including "a $34 dispute in the game contract," per the Press-Register's John Cameron on AL.com. Nowadays, most tickets to an Alabama-Auburn game cost at least that much.
There have been no disruptions since resuming the series in 1948, though until the late 1980s, the games were almost exclusively played in Birmingham, and Alabama didn't host the rivalry again until 2000 (losing, 9-0, to cap a 3-8 season that led to Mike DuBose's firing).
1. Army-Navy
25 of 25
First year played: 1890
Series history: Navy leads, 60-49-7
College football epitomizes America, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the best rivalry game around is one pitting two of this country's most patriotic programs. The Army-Navy Game is everything we want in a rivalry, with no shortage of passion and intensity, but it also means so much more than that.
When the game is being played, the two sides will stop at nothing to win. But as soon as the final whistle blows, players from each team are instantly bonded in their common goal of protecting our nation. Most of the players will never wear shoulder pads again, instead trading in jerseys for military fatigues and dress uniforms. And we couldn't be prouder.
"For our game, everybody has somebody in their family or knows somebody who served, so I think it touches everybody regardless of where you live," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo told USA Today in 2014.
Sure, Navy has dominated the series with 14 consecutive wins, but three of the last four have been decided by seven or fewer points despite Army regularly entering with a far worse record. The score matters only during the game, but soon after, the result quickly seems inconsequential.
All recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports, unless otherwise noted. All statistics provided by CFBStats, unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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