# Biggest college football rivalry **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 7, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154 "2019-11-07T22:16:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/41 "2019-11-13T19:29:52Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Depends on how you’re considering a big rivalry. **USC/Clemson is huge in SC** (I have family there) but outside of SC, it’s isn’t too big. Michigan/OSU is big nationwide, both are huge schools with a huge nationwide alumni base. And, as I mentioned earlier, both Ohio and Michigan are bleeding people to other states. So, even if you didn’t go to school at either, you’re likely to turn on ‘The Game’ even if you’re just a casual fan of college football. A few years ago I was reading a book by Ivan Maisel about college football. In it were several lists. One was of “Most Underrated Rivalries.” At #1 was [COLOR=“Black”]South Carolina[/COLOR] - Clemson about which he wrote something along the lines of: “If there were a machine that could harness the energy behind a rivalry South Carolina - Clemson would make that machine tap dance.” At #2 he listed Was[COLOR=“DarkOrange”]hington[/COLOR] - Was[COLOR=“Gray”]hington State[/COLOR] (for the Apple Cup). I don’t remember exactly what his criteria were for listing rivalries there but don’t doubt Ivan Maisel! He had a story about and showed (at the front of that book) the letter he once got from Paul “Bear” Bryant that “proves” his college football bona fides. So there! ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/42 "2019-11-13T19:32:48Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > I don’t have a cite, but a while back 538 did a study to try to identify the largest college football fan bases. The top three, all very close to each other and far ahead of #4, were Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. The rest of the top ten were six SEC schools and Notre Dame. PSU doesn’t have the longstanding rivalries with the other two that they have with each other. > > So, yeah, I think in terms of the number of people who care passionately about the outcome of the game, **Michigan-OSU is the biggest game in college football**. People in Alabama may go crazy about the Iron Bowl, but there just aren’t that many people in Alabama. > > Of course, objectively speaking, the most important and crucial rivalry in college football is Oregon-Oregon State, closely followed by Oregon-Washington. I insist that such a statement is no more than a matter of opinion. And in MY opinion [COLOR=“Yellow”]UM[/COLOR] vs. tO[COLOR=“Silver”]SU[/COLOR] is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY overrated. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/43 "2019-11-13T20:19:19Z")
My favorite college football factoid - The University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma have been rivals since before Oklahoma became a state. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/44 "2019-11-13T20:58:58Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > But does it? Ann Arbor and Columbus are two very different cities. Some people from Ohio may like the college town feel of Ann Arbor while some in Michigan might like the bigger city feel and potentially more internship and entertainment options that don’t revolve around college that you’d find in Columbus. That’s an interesting point. If you want to go to a big Midwestern university located in a small to medium sized college town, you have lots of pptions. If you want to go to one in a big city, and you don’t have the grades for Northwestern, tOSU is pretty much it. So you might expect those from the region whol want that lifestyle would tend to go there. In the wild, however, I have not observed Ohio State fans to be notably more bohemian or sophisticated than their Big Ten peers. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/45 "2019-11-13T21:04:19Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > I insist that such a statement is no more than a matter of opinion. And in MY opinion [COLOR=“Yellow”]UM[/COLOR] vs. tO[COLOR=“Silver”]SU[/COLOR] is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY overrated. Well, from the OP it appears you think the biggest rivalry would be the one that’s had the biggest impact on the national championship race in the recent past. Which I guess would probably be the Iron Bowl. And that’s certainly as valid a point of view as any other. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/46 "2019-11-13T21:08:52Z")
In support of my thesis, though, check these Wikipedia cites: > [@Civil War (college football game)](#): > > 1910: Following a 12-0 Oregon victory in Corvallis, fans of both teams began a verbal argument that escalated into exceedingly rowdy behavior as Ducks fans returned to the train station to leave. The UO’s public relations department spread stories of Oregon Agricultural College hooliganism to the statewide press, offending students of OAC and causing the rivalry to be suspended for 1911.[10] > > 1937: After defeating Oregon 14-0 in Corvallis, Oregon State fans had a large rally the next evening that lasted for six hours. Approximately 2,000 Oregon State students decided to caravan the following day to Eugene and have another celebration. State police initially halted the group, then agreed to lead them through the town if they agreed to behave. However, once Oregon students got out of class, the situation escalated with Ducks pelting Beavers with tomatoes and water balloons, some Oregon State students were thrown into the millrace, and other OSU students taken to Skinner Butte, stripped and forced to repaint the “O” hillside letter yellow and slide down the painted surface.[10] > > 1954: 50-60 UO students infiltrated Corvallis and lit the traditional OSU homecoming bonfire early. While it had been done before, this time OSU students were able to capture 25 UO students and hold them “prisoner”.[11] The captured students had their heads shaved, were painted orange and black and some were forced to do menial labor for OSU fraternities. One captured Duck was marched through the OSU campus with a sign that said “I’m a dumb Duck.”[10] Meanwhile, the UO raiding party kidnapped a single OSU student and paraded him around the UO campus.[11] > > 1960: A UO student abducted the OSU homecoming queen from the front of her home in Corvallis. She was returned unharmed thirty minutes later, but before that the OSU student body president received a ransom note demanding he ride a child’s scooter to the center of Eugene and make a public appeal for her return. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/47 "2019-11-13T22:12:59Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > Well, from the OP it appears you think the biggest rivalry would be the one that’s had the biggest impact on the national championship race in the recent past. Which I guess would probably be the Iron Bowl. And that’s certainly as valid a point of view as any other. Actually, my point all along has been more along the lines of: “Who’s to say just what the ‘biggest’ (however one defines that) rivalry is? It might be [COLOR=“Yellow”]UM[/COLOR] vs. tO[COLOR=“Silver”]SU[/COLOR], and it might not be. But I don’t think a declarative statement can be made one way or another so I don’t understand why so many people consider it to be when there’s no real way of proving that.” ---
**Author:** ![survinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@survinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/survinga)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/48 "2019-11-13T22:14:40Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > As someone who grew up on SC, I never understood how an out-of-state rivalry could be as intense as and in-state one. > > For the Clemson-South Carolina game, one of the reasons emotions are so intense is that you interact with people from the other side all of the time. They are in your family and work place. When your side wins, you get to gloat. When their side wins, you will have to be near those insufferable ass-hats for the next 12 months. This makes the desire to win much more intense. > > If you lose in a game like Ohio-Michigan, almost everyone around you is on the same team and they commiserate with you. Totally different experience. Agreed. That’s why I think in-state rivalries are the most intense. I went to the Clemson/SC game a few years ago. It was 2016. Clemson won 56-7, I think. They really enjoy beating SC, whom they derisively refer to as “the chickens”. ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/49 "2019-11-13T22:34:10Z")
With all respect due “The Civil War,” [here](http://fishduck.com/2019/10/oregon-vs-washington-history/)’s some good stuff about the Was[COLOR=“DarkOrange”]hington[/COLOR] - Or[COLOR=“Yellow”]egon[/COLOR] football rivalry (which got a lot more “real” starting in 1994). ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/50 "2019-11-17T05:32:55Z")
> [@racepug](#): > > With all respect due “The Civil War,” [here](http://fishduck.com/2019/10/oregon-vs-washington-history/)’s some good stuff about the Was[COLOR=“DarkOrange”]hington[/COLOR] - Or[COLOR=“Yellow”]egon[/COLOR] football rivalry (which got a lot more “real” starting in 1994). I think that’s an understatement to say it got a lot more “real” in 94. For about 100 years before 1994 Oregon’s best season was 2-10. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/51 "2019-11-21T23:13:01Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Oxford vs Cambridge.The Varsity Match began in 1872. Lehigh–Lafayette (AKA “The Rivalry” ) is almost as old (1884). It is the most played college football rivalry. Plus they play American football, which is what I think the OP was asking). Plus I think it probably has one of the highest ratios of “intensity of fan base” to “actual significance of the game”. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/52 "2019-11-22T20:48:01Z")
[Walter Minton](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/books/walter-minton-dead.html), censor fighting publisher who released “Lolita” while president of Putnam’s. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/53 "2019-11-22T21:02:29Z")
Sorry, wrong thread. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/54 "2019-11-23T01:23:05Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > “Biggest” in what way? > > In terms of how it affects people outside of the game itself? Probably Auburn-Alabama. Supposedly, there are three kinds of people in Alabama: > > 1. Those who say “Roll Tide” in every sentence. > 2. Those who say “War Eagle” in every sentence. > 3. Outsiders. > The only one that might rival it at that level is Army-Navy. > > There are other rivalries that seem to be ongoing; for example, if you want to buy tickets to a Stanford sporting event over the phone, dial 800-BEAT-CAL. This isn’t just talk. In Alabama, you can get killed just for not being upset ENOUGH that Auburn won. > [@](#): > > A woman was killed after Alabama’s loss to Auburn in the Iron Bowl on Saturday because she wasn’t upset enough about the Crimson Tide’s defeat, one witness says. > … > Sheperd leaves behind three young children. [Story here](https://larrybrownsports.com/college-football/woman-killed-alabama-fan-iron-bowl-loss/212549) ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/55 "2019-11-23T17:13:52Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Lehigh–Lafayette (AKA “The Rivalry” ) is almost as old (1884). It is the most played college football rivalry. Plus they play American football, which is what I think the OP was asking). > Plus I think it probably has one of the highest ratios of “intensity of fan base” to “actual significance of the game”. You’re saying it wrong. It’s Lafayette-Lehigh. For those not from the area, those supporting Lafayette always list Lafayette first and those supporting Lehigh always list Lehigh first. Those who start with Lehigh are wrong. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/56 "2019-11-23T19:23:39Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > This isn’t just talk. In Alabama, you can get killed just for not being upset ENOUGH that Auburn won. > [Story here](https://larrybrownsports.com/college-football/woman-killed-alabama-fan-iron-bowl-loss/212549) Okay, but unless you’re _from_ Alabama, how can you _possibly_ know how strongly people from there feel about that rivalry? I’ve mentioned in this thread, before, how [COLOR=“Yellow”]UM[/COLOR] vs. tO[COLOR=“Silver”]SU[/COLOR] was never really on my radar when I was a kid, but at least I knew of it. I don’t think I knew anything about any “Iron Bowl” until after I got out of the navy. My point being that no matter how intense locals feel about a rivalry, if it doesn’t resonate with anybody outside of a given state or a given region, then how can it truly be considered a great rivalry from a nationwide perspective? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/57 "2019-11-24T03:15:27Z")
BTW, [Cal beat Stanford](https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2019-11-23/pac-12-football-stanford-cal-chase-garbers) today with just over a minute to go. Happy Dance and go suck eggs Stanford sissy boys… ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/58 "2019-11-30T16:43:13Z")
It’s Farmageddon this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154/59 "2019-12-05T15:11:50Z")
The biggest rivalry in ALL of sports is Michigan against ohio state. awwburn vs analbama isnt even close. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-college-football-rivalry/843154.md?page=2)