Rivalry

Been a long while, sorry but been busy and haven't really wanted to type on my nights after work. I got this whole week off so expect at least 1 post a day. Today's topic the best rivalries in sports With the passing of the Michigan-Ohio State game on Saturday, not to mention me being in Toledo, Ohio last week, the forefront of the rivalry, and Dallas vs. Washington yesterday. I got to thinking what is the best rivalry in sports. To break it down I'm gonna pick some of the best ones from each sport then give my top ten.

Let's start in college football, to me the best rivalries are in college, you never see guys going from one team to another in college. If pro rivalries mattered as much Johnny Damon would not have a new ring and Brett Favre wouldn't have 21 TD's and 3 picks this season, sorry had to through out Favre's numbers for those who think he still doesn't have it. So college football is tough to even pick a top 5 in, Oklahoma-Texas, Michigan-Ohio State, Army-Navy, Oregon-Oregon St., Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Georgia, Nebraska-Oklahoma used to be huge, Notre Dame-everyone who hates Notre Dame, Harvard-Yale. Those are just a few I'm sure I missed some maybe locally Iowa-Iowa State, but this game is only huge in these borders and it's not a hate thing like Michigan-OSU. Wisconsin-Minnesota is the same thing, huge to the people involved but not outside the borders of each state. To talk about how huge a rivalry is kind of arbitary, I mean if you ask a dude in Texas he's gonna say UT-OU is the biggest, but if you talk to someone in Georgia I'm sure they'll tell you the cocktail party is the biggest. So, you kind of have to take a look at what the games mean, frankly Mich-OSU often decides the Big Ten, UT-OU typically decides the Big 12 South. UF-UGA sometimes decides the SEC East but admit it Tennessee being down lately ads to the rivalry. This weekend the Civil War in Oregon will decide the Pac-10 but it often does not. The best rivalry in college football is Michigan vs. Ohio State, the game means something every year and the closest one I can think of to it it UT-OU, and that game for Oklahoma wasn't the biggest one for it every year until it got seperated from Nebraska.

College Basketball has one rivalry that is way way above all the others, Duke-North Carolina is by far and above all others. The two teams regularly win the ACC regular and playoff championships. Almost 3/4 of the times they play someone is ranked number 1, so there you have it. Nough said, I can't even think of another rivalry that basketball is bigger than the football one.

The NFL has a few rivalries, all are divisional it seems. Whether it's Dallas-Washington, Green Bay-Chicago, New England-NY Jets, Denver-San Diego, Oakland-Kansas City, Green Bay-Minnesota, Me-Andy Reid. The last is so one sided it's not even funny I own the Walrus so much he doesn't even know who I am. Let me first put a boot to a couple other ones, Indy-New England, not a rivalry until 8 years ago, Indy has sucked until Peyton happened and same for New England with Brady, a rivalry has to be older than 8 to take over some of these others. This also goes for Ravens-Steelers, I get it their defensive minded teams that beat the crap out of each other but really the Ravens haven't been around very long. The best, not sure what's the best, I'll go with Green Bay-Chicago over Dallas-Washington, these reasoning for this is the proximity to the teams, and the fact that both sides take it seriously. I know Dallas acts like the Skins aren't as bigto them as they are to us, yeah yeah whatever. GB-Chi is quite the deal, when I was a kid two guys bet on the game and one had to walk from the Illinois border to Monroe with the opposing teams jersey on if they lost. Not sure I'm making that bet with a Cowboy fan. Brett Favre happened to add to this rivalry by playing for long in GB and the Bears having about 50-60 different QB's in that time frame. This season it's kind of taken a backseat to the Vikings but Packer fans will admit that they'd rather have Favre in purple than blue and orange, you can admit you can.

MLB has some goodies, and since it's the oldest sport it has some of the oldest rivalries, Yanks-Sox, Cubs-Cardinals, Dodgers-Giants, Phillies-Mets, Royals-league minimum payroll. I know the media goes ga-ga for the Yanks-Sox, personally I'm more of a LA-SF guy simply because it goes back to New York, and both teams moved to Cali at the same time. Cubs-Cards is pretty cool simply because the Cardinals hate the Cubs, I'm almost a defacto Cardinals fan since they hate the Cubs as much as I do. Simply put, smaller markets, less media coverage, makes this rivalry better than anyother.

The NBA has one rivalry, it's LA-Boston that's it, the two most winning franchises in the sport, Jordan's Bulls vs. Zeke's Pistons was huge, but only at the time. If the NBA could it would have the Lake Show play the Celts every year in the Finals.

So my rankings go like this for a top 10 rivalry in team sports. From 10-1
Yanks-Sox, only because their payroll fights in the off-season compare to the games they play in the regular season.
Cowboys-Redskins, everyone loves Cowboys and Indians, and it seems like each year the lesser of the two teams seems to rise up and take one from the better team.
The Iron Bowl, Auburn-Alabama, conference contenders from one of the most storied college football states in the nation, also they got nothing else beside Nascar in Alabama.
Lakers-Celtics renewed a few years ago, but nothing compares to Bird-Magic in the 80's.
Notre Dame-USC America's team vs. California's team, this is a great game every year, and both teams leave their hearts out on the field every game.
Bears-Packers the two most storied franchises in history and the original rivalry of the NFL, if only Halas and Lombardi could coach both teams forever.
Texas-Oklahoma neutral site game, seating 50-50, decides the conference, if not national, title every year it seems.
Cubs-Cardinals, hatred from both sides, border battle, the fact the Cards seem to win a world series every once in a while.
Duke-UNC, the closest of all the rivalries, seperated by what 7 miles? The fans are nuts about it, the Cameron crazies take it up a notch, and how many great players have played in it.
Michigan-OSU, this season not really much of a factor the last 6 years, same story after the game, but before that this rivalry was back and forth a lot, and the 10 year war between Woody and Bo is probably the best 10 games in the series, check it out.

So that's it, you got a problem send your hate mail to Andy Reid.