Rivalry talk again

[quietfan 233]

Every year at this time sports journalists start generating columns on the best rivalries in the land, and every year the Iron Bowl makes the lists among the leaders.

As expected, it makes this list also, but what I found more interesting and original were his comments on Auburn-Georgia:

http://www.collegefootballnews.com/2005/TQ...ay_Question.htm

The most underrated rivalry is … It doesn’t get nearly the same attention as Auburn-Alabama or Georgia-Florida, but Auburn-Georgia proved again last Saturday night that it’s one of the most underrated rivalries in college football.  These two have played, like, a million times, but it’s the quality, not the quantity, of the games that makes them so entertaining.  Every SEC rivalry rocks, but when the Tigers and Dawgs engage, two out of every three years produce memorable moments and great finishes.

(You can do the link to get the Iron Bowl comments.)

[auwallace 6]

i read those articles and every year they piss me off. They always talk about how the Iron bowl is the best rivalry in the southeast but it doesn't have as much national appeal. They then will say that mich/ohio st. is the best rivalry period because everyone in the country is interested. That is the biggest load of crap, go to the local walmart in your southern town today and ask how many people give two flips about the mich/ohio st. game. College football is regional, alway has been, always will be. But what makes the iron bowl so special is that it is an in-state rivalry that divides neighborhoods, businesses, families, and even relationships. In my case, my brother graduated from alabama in both undergrad and law school so the holiday season is always a little more interesting. This rivalry is without a doubt the most intense heated rivalry in the country, anyone who actually experiences it and doesn't just spew crap on an article about it would understand.

ps-don't even get me started on those idiots ranking the fla st. miami game ahead of us.

[SKCAUB 0]

i read those articles and every year they piss me off.  They always talk about how the Iron bowl is the best rivalry in the southeast but it doesn't have as much national appeal.  They then will say that mich/ohio st. is the best rivalry period because everyone in the country is interested.  That is the biggest load of crap, go to the local walmart in your southern town today and ask how many people give two flips about the mich/ohio st. game.  College football is regional, alway has been, always will be.  But what makes the iron bowl so special is that it is an in-state rivalry that divides neighborhoods, businesses, families, and even relationships.  In my case, my brother graduated from alabama in both undergrad and law school so the holiday season is always a little more interesting.  This rivalry is without a doubt the most intense heated rivalry in the country, anyone who actually experiences it and doesn't just spew crap on an article about it would understand.

ps-don't even get me started on those idiots ranking the fla st. miami game ahead of us.

198501[/snapback]

AMEN...a load of horse stuff!

[JB33 1]

Taking a step back for a sec, does anyone else find it strange that Alabama - Tennessee rarely, if ever, gets mentioned in these discussions? The CFN guys (and many others) call Auburn - Alabama the "meanest," "nastiest" rivalry - but, as things stand today, what rivalry, especially in light of the recent Phil-gate, could be called nastier or meaner than uat-UT?

NOTE: Before I'm flamed for a heretic, I'm NOT saying the third saturday in october is "bigger," "better," or more "intense," than the IRON BOWL; no rivalry is or could be - sorry Buckeye and Wolverine fans. But I take words like "meaner" and "nastier" (and "hate") to be self-evident - i.e., the participants genuinely, passionately dislike each other. I don't think I have to explain that there's no love loss (lost?) between Auburn and uat, but the level of disdain that currently exists between uat and UT (and particularly that emanating from south of the state line) is truly over the edge . . .

[And give me a break with FSU - Miami. Neither program was even on the map 25 years ago.]

[AFTiger 282]

You have to look at where the the population and media centers are. In the northeast, college football is nonexistant. It is all professional football and I don't blame them. Who the hell can get excited about harvard and Yale?

On the west coast is the PAC 10 for those who care but the sports writers have a large population base and so they push the PAC 10. Also, most of them came from the Mid-west and promote the Rose Bowl which for years (and still do) restricted their access to PAC 10 and Big 10 football.

The mid-west still likes college football and they love the Big 10 and Notre Dame. Their writers have a very condenscending view of anything southern. They are a larger population base and TV is based on ratings not quality.

Another larger population base is the east coast, which helps to explain the ACC strategy of Boston College and Miami. It is a tv conference for football and basketball. Travel for the smaller sports will be difficult.

I had many an argument with the Big 10 fans when it was basically Ohio St and Mich who declared, and still do, that the Big 10 was the best. You can still hear that from transplants down here (when they are trying to raise taxes).

To be honest, they are generally a clueless lot. I heard Shembeckler(sp) tell a room full of sportswriters that the average southern football fan knew more about football than most sportswriters.

[TigerinBham 1]

I never knew the Auburn-Alabama rivalry to be so violent.

[HomanAU 0]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto..._pat&id=2224614

[bigsixfive 327]

And how many other states have an actual law that says their state teams must play other teams every year?

[hccobb 0]

Yankees for the lose.

That is all.

[Trinity 0]

I wsih I could chime in here, but I live in Ohio, and the OSU/Michigan rivalry is huge up here. I was angered when I asked my histroy teacher who he though was going to win the Iron Bowl, and he said: "It's not bowl season yet, who plays in that?". I mumbled Auburn and Bama, and he replied with "Auburn and Bama, who caes about those teams?"

What a tool....