Best Rivalry in College Sports?

This past week, ESPN dubbed its coverage of NCAA basketball as “Rivalry Week.”  It featured matchups considered by many as some of college basketball’s greatest rivalries.  And the week lived up to its hype, with several games going down to the wire.

The pinnacle of rivalry week took place on Wednesday night when Duke and North Carolina squared off at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC.  Considered by many as the greatest rivalry in college sports (not just basketball), Duke/UNC has all the ingredients that make rivalries so special. Both schools have great tradition. Both are close in proximity (approximately 8 miles separate Durham from Chapel Hill). Both programs are consistently successful, producing teams in the top 10 (and there is always a lot at stake when they square off). Both play every year. And, most importantly, both schools hate each other. There’s no one else on their schedule they’d rather beat than the other one.

Here’s a clip from inside Cameron before Wednesday’s tipoff (note the noise…so loud it’s shaking):

This year, UNC got the best of Duke (or ”Dook,” if you’re a UNC fan) on Duke’s home court. But, if you happened to tune into the game, you saw another classic battle. The place was hopping (rumor has it that students camped out for days to get a seat at the game). The tensions were high. It was an evenly-matched game. And there was a lot at stake.  Add it to the long list of classic battles between the two powerhouses on “Tobacco Road.”

After watching the game, and several others in the ESPN “Rivalry Week” lineup, I began to reflect upon which rivalries I believe are the best in college sports. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that — in my opinion — there are many more great rivalries in college football than college basketball.  For example, take the following college football matchups that produce epic battles every year:

• Michigan – Ohio State
• Auburn – Alabama
• Texas – Oklahoma
• Florida – Georgia
• USC – Notre Dame
• Army – Navy (in recent years, this has lacked the competitiveness, but not the pageantry)
• Texas – Texas A&M
• Nebraska – Oklahoma
• Florida State – Miami
• California – Stanford
• Harvard – Yale

And the list goes on.  However, when reflecting on college basketball rivalries, here’s what I come up with:

• Duke – UNC
• Kentucky – Louisville
• Kansas – Missouri
• Arizona – UCLA
• Syracuse – UConn
• Duke – Maryland

At this point in my list, I’m struggling to think of any more — at least, any more that compare to their counterparts in college football.  For some reason, I just don’t think college basketball has quite as many. Now, that’s not to say that college basketball rivalries are less intense.  That’s hardly the case.  I’m just not sure there are quite as many epic rivalries in college hoops as college football.

However, I will agree that Duke/UNC might just be the best rivalry in college sports.  Why? I’m not sure I have a great reason…I just think they produce incredible games with national championship implications year-in and year-out. And as neighbors, they literally recruit the same players, use the same airport and hear about each other year-round.  For two schools who dominate the national landscape in hoops, that’s pretty amazing.

For all I know, it could be that I’m just riding the wave of in-season emotion. Come this fall, I may reach a different conclusion. 

~ by ahalperin on February 11, 2007.