<p>Believe me, I would love to have a football rivalry with Duke. Unfortunately, they have been so awful over the past decade or so that it really hasn’t been possible. </p>
<p>That said, you haven’t seen intensity if you haven’t been to a basketball game between UNC and Duke. You are closer to the action, more involved with the players (there are fewer and are not obscured by helmets), and the action is nonstop. There’s a reason why ESPN’s first full circle event (coverage of a single sporting event by every single ESPN channel, with different camera angles on each one) was a UNC-Duke basketball game.</p>
<p>I agree with this. It’s definitely true that a single football game in the regular season (esp the last one) means more than a single basketball game in the regular season. There is no disputing that. I’ll also modify my earlier statement regarding Duke-UNC being more intense/more animosity to say that during the game itself, Michigan-Ohio St is as intense as it gets (splitting hairs if saying one is more than the other). </p>
<p>However, I don’t think the Michigan-Ohio St rivalry is a much a year-round constant back and forth battle as Duke-UNC because of the proximity. So, the peak of the intensity/animosity at game times may be about the same, but you can easily avoid the Umich-ohio st bickering by just not going on internet message board (assuming it’s not game day). In the state of North Carolina, Duke fans AND players run into UNC fans/players all year round at bars, restaurants, stores, etc. so it’s a constant battle that never ends. Thus, I think the rivalry is more a constant passion. So, while Michigan fans certainly hate Ohio St and want them to lose every game, they don’t really have to worry about them since Ohio St fans don’t live in their state and can get them out of their minds. (I grew up hating Ohio St, btw :)) Maybe I’m talking more from a fan perspective. But I’d definitely agree the games in football rivalries have more significance - since one football game during the regular season can make or break it, as opposed to basketball.</p>
<p>In any event, it’s a stupid argument. They’re all great rivalries and everybody has their own biased opinion based on their own experiences. Anybody who gets to partake in any of them gets to experience something special.</p>
<p>College football may be more appealing to you on a personal level, but to say that college basketball doesn’t matter is pretty ridiculous. College basketball is huge in this country-hence the reason why millions of people find themselves filling out brackets during March each year.</p>
<p>I think it’s still a stretch to say Duke-UNC. It’s probably the most well known among the bunch. I’m pretty sure there are rivalries in football that are as heated as Duke-UNC that probably have more followers. </p>
<p>Duke-UNC is a big one. I would personally place it among the top 3. That’s just my two cents. lol</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with that. Personally, I think its apples and oranges trying to compare football and basketball rivalries. Both have their own charm and traditions, and both are exciting to be involved with. I would love to go to a big-time Big 10 or SEC football rivalry game, just as I’m sure plenty of people would love to go to a Duke/Carolina basketball game.</p>
<p>Those are good stats for one city, but keep in mind there are 6 schools sharing those statistics. UNC and Duke, on the other hand, have 32 Final Fours and 8 NCAA National Championships between them, which is what makes the rivalry particularly intense along this stretch of Tobacco Road.</p>
<p>College lax is amazing. Other than the NCAA hockey championship last year (which I was at), the NCAA lax championship was the most amazing game I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>Still can’t believe Cornell turned it over with what, 17 seconds left on the clock? Absolutely incredible. Hopefully games like that will start getting more and more people into watching/playing lax.</p>
<p>Traditional rivalries are many, but the “best”, as articulated above, seems to sort of depend on where you are from and where you went to school, doesn’t it? If you are from the south, Alabama v. Auburn is every bit as intense as Ohio State v. Michigan or USC v. UCLA, on a “traditional” basis. I also think you really have to separate basketball and football. Although the rivalry between schools carries over into every sport, it is too rare for any school to have a sufficient degree of success in multiple major sports, on a consistent basis, to be at the national forefront in more than one of the major sports. With regard to basketball, it’s hard to imagine any rivalry being more intense historically, or competitive in recent history, or important and followed on a national scale than Duke v. North Carolina. Each has recent NCAA championships and consistent excellence. In football, it’s hard to get too excited these days about any “rivalry” involving Michigan, Notre Dame, or UCLA, no matter who you put them up against, because they have been so mediocre for a good number of years. I mean, Georgia and Georgia Tech absolutely “hate” each other as much as any other set of rivals, but their annual “showdown” hasn’t counted for much on the national scene in recent years (and it’s been pretty lopsided, with UGA winning about 14 out of the last 17). Same goes for Michigan v. Ohio State and USC v. UCLA (much less for the teams mentioned that are from secondary conferences) – it doesn’t mean anything on a national level, it just has extreme/intense local interest. So to get to the “best” rivalry these days (i.e., now), I think you need to factor in a degree of relative importance on the national scene (not just “passion” on a local level), and for the past several years, that means the key match-ups in the SEC. Every big game involving Florida against LSU, Alabama and Georgia is HUGE, and over the past several years has dictated who was going to be the National Champion of the biggest, most followed, richest college sport on the planet. In the SEC, you’ve got a conference with the past 3 National Champions and 4 teams currently ranked in the top 7. That’s where the real action and most intense rivalries reside today, and it involves every match-up combination among a handful of teams.</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? As recently as 2006, the Michigan-Ohio State game came down to national #1 v. national #2, each team 11-0 going into their annual showdown in the last game of the regular season, the winner claiming the Big Ten title and the national #1 ranking to face Florida for the national championship. In one of the most exciting football games ever, Ohio State narrowly edged Michigan 42-39 despite a furious Michigan comeback. A lot of people thought Michigan deserved a neutral field rematch for the national championship (though Florida totally exposed OSU in the game that ensued). That “doesn’t mean anything on a national level”? Puh-leeze.</p>
<p>Michigan had a couple of stumbles in 2007, suffering 3 losses with many of their key players injured, before defeating Tim Tebow and Florida in the 2008 Capitol One Bowl. They’ve had one really bad year, 2008. That’s hardly “mediocre for a good number of years.” And it’s still the case almost every year that the Michigan-Ohio State game has implications for one or more BCS bowl games, and usually most or all of them as the dominoes fall depending on who wins that game. It ALWAYS has national implications.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins vs. Syracuse…(two best perennial national powerhouses in LAX with 20 titles combined)</p>
<p>or Johns Hopkins vs. Maryland (college lacrosse most historic rivalry)</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins lacrosse team represented the United States at both the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won two gold medals. TAKE THAT SYRACUSE.</p>
TAKE THAT SYRACUSE.</p>