A Case For Red River Showdown As The Best College Football Rivalry
The Red River Showdown, formerly the Red River Rivalry and other names, has been around since 19000. In “modern times,” though — so, let’s say since 2000 — it’s often been a battle of ranked team vs. ranked team. In fact, this Saturday’s game between UT-Austin and University of Oklahoma will be the 17th time since 2000 that both teams are ranked headed into the game. You could quibble and say, “Well, the game usually happens around Columbus Day, and it’s easier to be ranked then.” Indeed. You’d be semi-right about that. But for a period of time from about 2001 to 2004, every year these teams were meeting and were both top-five. This also happened in there:
If I had to actually pick a Rivalry for college football, I would lean towards Ohio State vs. Michigan, which regularly has ranked matchups and also tends to coincide with Thanksgiving weekend, so there’s a nice familial element as well. Cal-Stanford is interesting, if only for “The Play.” I like Oregon vs. Oregon State because the fog rolls in nicely during that one, and I like a few others. But in terms of sheer impact around mid-October, it’s hard to argue with Red River Rivalry, ya know?
Your take?
