The Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry is plenty eminent. But, at 36 games, it is nowhere near college football’s most-contested, and in recent years it has not been among the most nationally decisive, either. Here are other notable competitions. (Numbers from Sports Reference.)
■ Major college football’s most prolific rivalry is Wisconsin-Minnesota. The winner has received Paul Bunyan’s Axe since 1948, but the Badgers and the Gophers first met in the 1890s and have played a total of 127 times.
■ The most prolific intrastate rivalry is the Civil War: Oregon and Oregon State have played 121 times.
■ Nebraska and Oklahoma played 84 times between 1921 and 2010, a period in which they combined to win 65 conference championships (and 12 national titles). But since the Cornhuskers joined the Big Ten in 2011, this rivalry has become dormant, as have several other even longer-tenured rivalries of the old Big 8.
■ Either Stanford or Southern California has won the Pacific-12 title four of the past six seasons. Stanford has home-field advantage for this year’s game, on Sept. 8.
■ Few rivalries have been more determinative recently than Clemson-Florida State: The winner has won the last seven Atlantic Coast Conference titles and qualified for the last five national postseasons; each has won one national title in that span. They meet in Tallahassee on Oct. 27.
■ The most-played and longest uninterrupted rivalry in college football is Lafayette-Lehigh, which stands at 153 games entering this season.
■ But, of course, the biggest rivalry of the current college football era is the Iron Bowl. In the last nine seasons, Auburn and Alabama have combined for nine postseason spots, seven Southeastern Conference titles, six national titles, three Heisman Trophy winners and one Kick-Six. It’s in Tuscaloosa this year, on Nov. 24.
Source : Nytimes
