This week is rivalry week in college basketball. ESPN ran a piece yesterday that got me thinking about the greatest rivalries in sports. So, I ask you, intrepid readers: which rivalry is the greatest? Here’s my short list. Let me know what you think.
- College basketball: Duke vs UNC. A classic ACC matchup with two premiere programs. I’ll watch this one any time.
- MLB: Yankees vs Red Sox. I would put Cards vs. Cubs here, but there’s usually less riding on those games (since most years the Cubs are mathematically eliminated in May).
- NBA: Celtics vs Lakers. This isn’t much of a rivlary anymore, but back in the 80’s, these teams duked it out for the championship every year. Where art thou, Dennis Johnson?
- College football: This one could go a number of ways. I know a lot of you would put Auburn vs Bama up here. But you also have Michigan vs Ohio State, USC vs Notre Dame…even Army vs Navy. I can’t pick just one here.
- NFL: Another tough one. Historically, I might put Cowboys vs Niners here. In today’s landscape, it’d have to be Pats vs Colts. Who am I leaving out here?
- Hockey: (just kidding…who cares, right?)
For my money, I’ll take Yanks & Sox. This great rivalry used to be limited only to the regular season as the Bombers and Beaners regularly vied for the AL East crown. But one of the advantages of the new playoff format has been watching these two foes square off in the ALCS a couple times over the past few years. Who could forget the Sox rallying from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Yankees in the ’04 Championship Series? This rivalry has it all: passionate fan bases, rich history, competitive rosters year in and year out. The only thing that would make it better would be if these two teams could actually face off in the World Series. For me, this is the best rivalry in sports.
Your thoughts?
already & not yet 
Cowboys–RedskinsSteelers–BrownsMarist–Amherst
I like most of these picks. Allow me to interject…College BBall: Duke vs. UNCMLB: Yanks and Red Sox. I mean, they straight up hate each other.NBA: People care anymore?College Football: Iron Bowl. No question. There is hate here. And the thing is, in this rivalry, your team loses, you hear about it the next day at work. Michigan and OSU go their seperate ways after the game, but we have to put up with each other here.NFL: I’ve got a few. Recently, I’ll say Packers/Vikings. I know, kind of a homer pick since I’m a Pack fan, but that’s always been really good and esp. since we’re in the same division. It’s kind of the same thing with the Yanks/Red Sox. Pats/Colts is good because of Peyton and Brady, but they only play every once in a while. The last 6 or 7 games between the Packers and Vikings have been decided by 1 or 2 points or a last second field goal. Historically in the NFL, what about the Raiders/Broncos in the 70s. They HATED each other. But my overall picks for historically is Redskins/Cowboys and Packers/Bears. A lot of hate in those, too.Presidential Elections: The Democrats and Republicans. I mean, these two are ALWAYS in the finals against each other. Pretty consistant teams, I’d say…
Chiefs – BroncosOU – Texas – HELLO!!!Michigan – NDMust agree though for baseball it doesn’t get any better than Sox – Yanks.
You beat me to the punch, I am about to do my top 10 soon. Guess we both were inspired by ESPN.
After I made my post this morning, I thought of Texas & OU. There’s just so many great collegiate rivalries. Same with the NFL. Hard to identify the quintessential rivalry there. I guess Cowboys / Redskins could be up there. Seems like all those NFC East teams just hate each other.As for the NBA, I remember the Heat / Knicks matchups of the late 90’s. Those were some awesome games. Same with Bulls / Pistons in the early 90’s. Still waiting for a hockey fan to weigh in here.
Celtics-Lakers – even though they only played twice in the regular season – was the best in the 80’s, and, in my opinion, nothing has compared since. For college football, there are so many. In this part of the country (Arkansas), we’re between OU-Texas and Alabama-Auburn. But Michigan-OSU is just as big elsewhere. Army-Navy is great as well. I never watched that much of it until I read Feinstein’s book a few years back. As for the best, it’s a pretty tough call.College basketball is, hands down, Duke-UNC. Not just because I’m a Duke fan. Nothing else comes close. Two schools next door to each other with such different student bodies and great basketball tradition spanning 50+ years. Hard to find anything else in college basketball that even approaches it.I heard Vitale on Mike & Mike on ESPN radio back just before the season started, which was also just prior to the OSU-Michigan football game. Mike Greenberg had some fun with Vitale by telling him Mich-OSU was a bigger rivalry than Duke-UNC basketball. I thought Vitale was going to have a stroke right there. He was hysterical and began babbling incoherently. It was hilarious. And it was clear that he disagreed.
I love the Iron Bowl, but I’d have to go with Army-Navy as the best college football rivalry. Call me old school, but this game is a throwback to when college football was still an amateur sport and not an NFL farm system. Don’t get me wrong, I love major college football, and totally want the CFB rich to get richer and poor to get poorer (Am I the only non OU fan that rooted against Boise St?), but there is something special about the Cadets and Midshipmen marching in, the President attending the game on occasion, and the built in fan base that both teams have across the entire country.As for the NBA, can’t beat Lakers-Celtics, but Bulls-Knicks in the 90s was also great. Ewing and Starks against Jordan and Pippen. And Knicks-Pacers was a lot of fun too.And if the Cubs are elinated from contention in May they must be having a great year. I thought that news usually came out at the winter meetings.
Matt, the Tribune is reporting that the Cubs have already been mathematically eliminated for ’08, too.
For hockey it doesn’t get any better than Wings – Av’s of late 90’sWings – Stars early 2000’s
I know this is really sad, but nothing really compares in the US to some of the Soccer (pardon me, football) rivalries around the world. I caught the fever at the Celtics vs. Rangers, two Scotish teams, during one of my mission trips there. They hate each other so much, people in the stands fight with each other, the players fight with each other, its brutal!But the Yanks/Sox rivalry is tremendous. As is the Duke/NC rivalry.
One of the reasons soccer is so big elsewhere is the nationalistic sense of pride associated with these teams. I know the World Cup is supposed to be the Super Bowl on steroids or something, but the reason is because every country roots passionately for their teams. I’m not much of a fan of the game, but I can see the beauty in that. (You never thought I’d come around, did you Mike?)Where’s the love for that vaunted WNBA rivalry, Mystics vs Comets?
I had faith. It must have been my World Cup posts last summer.