Posted on 11/26/2008 11:13:02 AM PST by bobjam
It's Rivalry Week in the world of college football! In honor of this wonderful time of the football year, I have assembled a list of ten games that the true fan of college football should attend at least once in a lifetime. The games are listed in no particular order:
1) USC vs UCLA: This is Hollywood vs the rest of Los Angeles
2) California Berkley vs Stanford: The peace-niks vs the tree huggers (or the other way around). This shows that even leftist wackos enjoy college football.
3) Texas vs Oklahoma: The Red River Shootout. Yes, I said "Shootout" and not "Challenge" or "Rivalry" or "Showdown" or some other PC garbage.
4) Colorado vs Nebraska: Boulder vs Lincoln- this is turning into a nice cultural battle.
5) Ohio State vs Michigan: This dates back to the war fought between Michigan and Ohio over Toledo. They say Ohio lost.
6) Alabama vs Auburn: The Iron Bowl.
7) Florida vs Georgia: The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Anybody who has been there knows exactly way it's called that.
8) Army vs Navy: One of the few games to be found on television where the players don't trash talk, engage in attnetion grabbing celebrations after a tackle, or commit stupid penalties.
9) Harvard vs Yale: Northeastern elitists' version of tailgating and a rivalry can be amusing. The MIT students usually have something planned for this one.
10) Notre Dame vs BYU: This game isn't played every years, no teams mix football and religion more than these two.
Some Honorable Mentions: FAMU vs Howard Kansas vs Missouri Washinton vs Washington St Lehigh vs Lafayette Grambling vs Southern Minnesota vs Wisconsin
The fascination with finding a single eternal platonic verifiable true champion takes a great deal of mystique out of the rivalries. Imagine a college team who is going to be in the playoffs already sitting its best players for the last game of the season like they do in pros. And imagine if that were a rivalry game.
I think the idea of a playoff already detracts from the rivalries. The Iron Bowl isn’t the Iron Bowl its just another step on the way to some mythical ‘national title’ if one of the two teams is in the hunt.
If USC plays Penn State in the Rose Bowl instead of being a great Rose Bowl match up, for many it is just going to be a BCS also-ran-bowl with people pouting about how one of the two couldashoulda been in the championship game.
It is already happening and at an accelerating pace and it will only be worse if you guys get what you want.
Fine that you are in the majority. I understand your position. Don’t pretend the minority report here has no valid point to make.
Just thought I’d let you know....I still have no voice from Saturday, even today. I’m super hoarse from singing the sweet sweet music! :)
Take care of that voice...Saturday is a-coming!
Looking forward to Saturday...gonna be a good game!
Roll TIDE ROLL!
Notre Dame vs. BYU?! Huh?
BTW - Last Friday, the Arkansas vs. LSU rivalry lived up to it’s reputation. Arkansas jumped out to a 14-3 lead, then LSU roared back to take a 30-14 lead, only to have Arkansas come back in the second half and score the winning touchdown with 28 seconds left on a 20 yard touchdown pass on a 4th and 1 for the tie and then kick the extra point to win 31-30. Too bad it didn’t count for much, but it was classic southeastern conference college football.
One of the best games I’ve seen in a long time. It sure appears Arkansas loves to screw up LSU’s seasons. I’m about this game the way Texas Aggies are about beating Texas. Win this one game and it’s almost a winning season.
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