<p>Here are basketball and football stats respectively, illustrating why this is in fact a rivalry. (Sources <a href="http://www.pennathletics.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.pennathletics.com/</a>, <a href="http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/</a>)</p>
<p>2004: Penn 16, Princeton 15 (@ Princeton)
2003: Penn 37, Princeton 7 (@ Penn) Penn: Ivy League Champions</p>
<p>and </p>
<p>2004-2005 Penn 70, Princeton 62 (OT) (@ Penn), Penn 64, Princeton 65 (@ Princeton) Penn: Ivy Leauge Champions
2003-2004 Penn 67, Princeton 52 (@ Princeton), Penn 70, Princeton 76 (OT) (@ Penn) Princeton: Ivy Leauge Champions</p>
<p>Thus, a rivalry. Close games, battling it out for the NCAA berth... heck, since the 1958-1958 season, either Penn and/or Princeton have won the Ivies, only in 1961-1962 (Yale), 1985-1986 (Brown) and 1987-1988 (Cornell) was the Ivy League not won by either Penn or Princeton, either outright or shared (four times either Penn or Princeton shared it with somebody else, four times shared it with each other (2001-2002 Yale, Penn and Princeton shared)). If that does not equal a rivalry, I don't know what does.</p>
<p>Oh, the Big Five (LaSalle Penn, St. Joseph's, Temple, Villanova) also would probably count as a rivalry, though I think those games aren't as big as they used to be. However, according to an unscientific poll on ESPN.com (<a href="http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/fiftyfifty/polling?event_id=1451%5B/url%5D">http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/fiftyfifty/polling?event_id=1451</a> (Take the poll to get the results)), 23.2% of people who responded said te Big Five was the biggest rivalry in the the state. It recieved the most votes, over the Steelers/ Browns (19.7%) and Penn State/ Ohio State (18.6%).</p>