2) Alabama Crimson Tide (10-1, 6-1) - Should the Iron Bowl be considered the best rivalry in college football? I think so, if you add the caveat "today" to the end. This year will mark the third consecutive year in which the game will carry BCS implications, and the last two years the winner of the game has actually gone on to win the national championship. However, this period still probably doesn't compare to the "glory days" of the Iron Bowl, from 1981-1986, when the game was decided on the last play four times.
3) Arkansas Razorbacks (10-1, 6-1)
4) Oklahoma State Cowboys (10-1, 7-1)
5) Stanford Cardinal (10-1, 8-1) - The Notre Dame Fighting Irish played in their first ever bowl game on January 1, 1925, in the 11th Rose Bowl against the Stanford Indians. Stanford was 7-0-1, and coached by Glenn "Pop" Warner, and the Irish were 9-0, coached by Knute Rockne, and featured the "Four Horsemen" running backs. Legend goes that it was during Rockne's trip to Pasadena that his wife dined with the wife of USC's athletic director Gwynn Wilson, and the two women got to talking about how much lovelier Southern California was in the winter than South Bend, and thus was born the annual tradition of the Notre Dame-USC rivalry. The game itself was dominated by Stanford, but three turnovers led to 21 Irish points, and Notre Dame pulled away for the win, 27-10. Stanford would not have to wait long, though, winning their first ever Rose Bowl 7-6 over Pittsburgh three years later.
6) Oregon Ducks (9-2, 7-1) - Saturday will mark the third consecutive season in which the Oregon-Oregon State Civil War Game will decide some kind of championship, conference or division. In honor of this, and in the general spirit of Thanksgiving, we should all take a moment to remember the 1983 Civil War Game. On a cold and rainy day in Eugene in November, the Ducks and the Beavers played to the last 0-0 tie in NCAA history, a game in which the teams combined for eleven fumbles, five interceptions, and four missed field goals.
7) Houston Cougars (11-0, 7-0)
8) Boise State Broncos (9-1, 4-1) - It was this weekend last year that Boise State's BCS hopes went down in a 34-31 overtime loss to the Nevada Wolfpack. Boise State's rivalry with Nevada goes back to 1971, when the Broncos were in the Big Sky conference and Nevada was an independent. Unfortunately, this rivalry may be in jeopardy in the future, as the Broncos consider a move to the Big East while the WAC and the Mountain West continue to struggle for survival.
9) Michigan State Spartans (9-2, 6-1)
10) Kansas State Wildcats (9-2, 6-2)
11) Virginia Tech Hokies (10-1, 7-1)
12) Oklahoma Sooners (8-2, 5-2) - There may be no program more decorated or celebrated than Oklahoma, who has the most weeks at No. 1 in the AP poll, the 8th most wins of any program in college football, and has appeared in 44 bowl games. Oklahoma football, in fact, is 12 years older than the state of Oklahoma. The second coach for the Oklahoma Sooners was Vernon Parrington, an English professor and Pulitzer Prize winner who brought superior tactics with him from Harvard that led the Sooners to a 9-2-1 record from 1897 to 1900. My favorite quote from Coach Parrington? After being chased out of Oklahoma to U of W for his liberalism:
With every passing year my radicalism draws fresh nourishment from large knowledge of the evils of private capitalism. Hatred of that selfish system is become the chief passion of my life. The change from Oklahoma to Washington marks the shift with me from the older cultural interpretation of life to the later economic.
13) USC Trojans (9-2, 6-2)
14) Wisconsin Badgers (9-2, 5-2) - The Badgers are two wins away from earning their second consecutive trip to the Rose Bowl, a feat that they last accomplished during the 1998-1999 seasons, under coach Barry Alvarez. Wisconsin is 3-4 all time in the Rose Bowl, with their last win coming after the 1999 season, a 17-9 win over Stanford. That game featured Heisman Trophy winning running back Ron Dayne, who rushed for over 200 yards in the game, including a 64-yard run on a scoring drive in the third quarter that gave Wisconsin the lead for good.
15) Georgia Bulldogs (9-2, 7-1) - Saturday will be either the 104th or 106th game between Georgia and Georgia Tech, depending on who you ask. Their first match was on November 4, 1893, a 28-6 win for visiting Tech. According to historian Bill Cromartie:
At one time early in the last half of the game, a stone was hurled at one of the Tech players, striking him a cruel blow in the head... At another time, one of the Athenians drew a knife and threatened one of the Techs' better players... The Techs were also poked and gouged with canes on plays toward the boundary lines... Some of the crowd had the privilege of the gridiron equally with the players.16) Penn State Nittany Lions (9-2, 6-1)
17) TCU Horned Frogs (9-2, 7-0) - TCU won its first of two national championships after the 1935 season. The Frogs finished the season 11-1, their only loss 20-14 to undefeated Southern Methodist. They ended the season ranked fourth, and played #1 LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Rain had fallen in New Orleans for three days before New Year's, and the game turned into a mud-filled slugfest in the rain. Neither team gained more than 200 yards, and there were a combined seven turnovers. The Frogs' defense were the stars of the game, three times stopping the Tigers in the Red Zone, forcing them to come away with 0 points. TCU would win the game 3-2. With #2 SMU losing to Stanford 7-0 in the Rose Bowl, TCU claimed a championship by ending first in the now defunct Williamson Rankings.
18) Michigan Wolverines (9-2, 5-2)
19) South Carolina Gamecocks (9-2, 6-2) - The Battle of the Palmetto State dates back to 1896, a 12-6 victory for South Carolina over Clemson. However, the rivalry between the Gamecocks and the Tigers has been about more than just football. Clemson was founded in 1889 to provide a higher education option for the sons of poor farmers who could not get into South Carolina, which, along with banning women and African Americans after Reconstruction ended in 1877, had a student body that was overwhelmingly the sons of Confederate officers. South Carolina would continue to be the university of the state's privileged until after World War Two. Under pressure to accept veterans regardless of class or race, South Carolina opened its doors to a broad population, whereas Clemson began to be the more restrictive of the two schools; the first African American student to enroll at Clemson was in 1963.
20) Clemson Tigers (9-2, 6-2) - John Heisman coached Clemson from 1900-1903, amassing a 19-3-2 record, two conference championships, and gave the team their name (either after Heisman's previous employer, Auburn, or the current national champions, Princeton). However, he was never able to claim a national championship. Clemson's only national championship came in 1981, after an 11-0 record and 22-15 win over #4 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
21) Baylor Bears (7-3, 4-3)
22) Nebraska Cornhuskers (8-3, 4-3) - During the Great Depression, part of the WPA - that great endeavor by Washington D.C. to get Americans back to work - was the federal writers project, which compiled invaluable local histories, oral histories, and ethnographies from all 48 American states. Regarding Nebraska football, the FWP recorded:
Football in Nebraska is more than a diversion for college students. A State university game is an event talked about and eagerly followed by rural and urban fans. If the day of a football game is not too cold or rainy, the streets of Lincoln are sure to be jammed with people and cars, brightened with pennants and chrysanthemums. The highways are crowded for miles around. Broadcasts of games are picked up in almost every store and gas station from Omaha to the western border; farmers sometimes neglect their cornhusking in the afternoon to hear the game over the radio.23) Southern Miss Golden Eagles (9-2, 5-2)
24) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (8-3, 5-3) - Georgia Tech still holds the record for most dominant victory in college football history, a 222-0 win over Cumberland College in 1916. The story goes that, before the season, Cumberland College had officially ended their football program, and asked Georgia Tech to cancel their previously scheduled game. However, John Heisman, Georgia Tech's coach, refused Cumberland's request. Heisman was out for revenge for the baseball team's 22-0 loss to Cumberland the spring before, in which (according to Heisman) Cumberland had used professional players. The game went on as scheduled, with Cumberland fielding a team of student volunteers. Georgia Tech scored 16 touchdowns in the game (also a record) and never got a first down, as they scored from scrimmage on almost every snap.
25) Auburn Tigers (7-4, 4-2) - Despite beginning their rivalry in 1893, the Alabama Crimson Tide never played in Jordan-Hare Stadium, or in the town of Auburn, Alabama, until December 2, 1989. It was on this day that the No. 11 Tigers hosted the No. 2 Tide, with the SEC Championship on the line. Auburn jumped out to a 27-10 lead, and managed to hold on for the win, 30-20. Alabama would proceed from this game to lose to #2 Miami in the Sugar Bowl, while Auburn would defeat #21 Ohio State in the Hall of Fame Bowl.
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