College Football's 10 Most Heated Rivalries

If you're still trying to recover and make sense of what we just saw last weekend in college football when three of the Top-Five teams got picked off, make sure you buckle your seatbelt and prepare yourself for some more craziness. Rivalry weekend always has a few surprises in store every season.

This weekend, a few of the sport’s most prestigious and celebrated rivalry games will take place, which means fans around the country—from Ohio to Alabama to California—will all be jazzed up and ready to knock off their archenemies.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of college football’s most heated rivalries.

10. Oregon Ducks vs. Oregon State Beavers

The Civil War rivalry between Oregon and Oregon State doesn't usually get much publicity outside of the Pacific Northwest, but it's definitely been a game of importance in recent years.

There were many instances over the last decade that the Civil War game had a direct effect on who ended up playing in the Rose Bowl.

Ducks vs. Beavers may not sound like all that rugged of a fight, but when these two teams step on the field with each other, it can get downright nasty.

9. Yale Bulldogs vs. Harvard Crimson

Yale vs. Harvard is one of the oldest and most prestigious games in college football history, and there’s never any love lost between either fanbase when these schools meet up in any sport.

They've been playing "The Game" since 1875, and the intensity and passion to win has only increased over the years.

Checking out a Yale-Harvard game should be on any true college football fan's bucket list. 

8. Florida State Seminoles vs. Miami Hurricanes

This used to be one of college football's most-anticipated matchups, but even though both programs have had their struggles in recent years, the mystique around this game never seems to go away.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, this game produced plenty of memorable moments and finishes, including all the wide right's that doomed Florida State.

Both the Seminoles and the Hurricanes are heading in the right direction with Jimbo Fisher and Al Golden leading the way, and both coaches should help to restore this rivalry as one of the best in all of college football.

7. Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. USC Trojans

Notre Dame vs. USC is one of college football's most celebrated rivalries, but the game lost a little bit of juice during the days when Pete Carroll had the Trojans rolling over the Irish throughout the 2000s.

Now that Lane Kiffin and Brian Kelly are at the helm, though, it looks like this rivalry will balance out over the next few years.

Kiffin and Kelly are two of the top young coaching minds in college football, and it seems like they both have their programs headed in the right direction, which means it should be fun to watch the Irish and the Trojans battle for the jeweled Shillelagh for years to come.

6. Florida Gators vs. Georgia Bulldogs

The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is a great place to harness the inner tailgater inside of you, but it's a also great place to catch one of the best college football rivalries in the southern United States, Florida vs. Georgia.

When the Gators and Bulldogs get together down in Jacksonville, there's always a level of animosity present.

The only way this rivalry could get any better is if Georgia picked up the slack a little bit, since the Bulldogs are only 4-18 in this game since 1990.

5. Texas Longhorns vs. Texas A&M Aggies

Texas got the last laugh in this long-standing rivalry by beating Texas A&M 27-25 on a game-winning last-second field goal on Thanksgiving night.

With the Aggies heading off to the SEC next year, that could be the last time we see these two teams square off for a long time, and it's a shame that one of the sport's best rivalries became just another casualty of college football conference realignment.

4. Army Knights vs. Navy Midshipmen

Even though the talent level of both of these teams isn't nearly the same as it was during the heyday of this rivalry back in the first half of the 20th Century, this game still has plenty going for it.  

You're not going to find a college football game with more pageantry and tradition, and if you've ever had the pleasure of attending an Army-Navy game, you know that the two fanbases are extremely passionate about earning service academy bragging rights every year.

3. Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Auburn Tigers

The Iron Bowl drives a year-round debate throughout the state of Alabama, and it doesn’t matter what the records of the two teams are when the Tide and the Tigers get together; every year, this is one of the most-anticipated games on the schedule.

With Gene Chizik and Nick Saban now in charge, it looks like these two programs—which happen to have won the past two BCS championships—will be national powers for the foreseeable future, and there should be a lot riding on this game in the years to come.

2. Oklahoma Sooners vs. Texas Longhorns

The Red River Rivalry game was usually the deciding game of the Big 12 conference race, and often times during the last decade, it had National Championship implications as well.

The Sooners and the Longhorns were two of college football's superpowers throughout the early 2000s, and that talent level made for some pretty epic battles between these two recently.

Considering Oklahoma is 8-4 since the turn of the millennium and just got done trouncing Texas 55-17 this season, hopefully the Longhorns can pick things up and make this one of the most competitive rivalries in college football again.

1 .Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Michigan Wolverines

When it comes to rivalries in college football, this is literally and figuratively "The Game."

Ohio State and Michigan are two of the most successful and decorated programs in college football history, and when they meet near the end of every season, there's always a clear line drawn in the sand, as both fanbases simply can't stand each other.

The Buckeyes dominated this rivalry during the Jim Tressel era, winning the last seven games, but that looks like it's about to change now that Brady Hoke is in charge.

This rivalry has definitely given us some memorable battles in recent years, including the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown back in 2006, and it appears that there will be plenty more to come over the next few years.

Honorable Mentions

• Utah vs. BYU
• Kansas vs. Missouri
• Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State
• Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia
• Michigan vs. Notre Dame
• Georgia vs. Georgia Tech
• Clemson vs. South Carolina
• Florida vs. Tennessee
• UCLA vs. USC
• Lafayette vs. Lehigh