2. OHIO STATE vs. MICHIGAN
First game: 1897
Series: Michigan leads 57-44-6
After a late-game touchdown gave Ohio State a 48-14 lead over its arch-nemesis in their 1968 contest, the Buckeyes’ legendarily combative coach Woody Hayes punctuated the rout with a gratuitous two-point conversion. Why? “’Cause I couldn’t go for three.” The following year, Michigan hired former Hayes assistant Bo Schembechler to lead its program, and the rivalry intensified as the Wolverines ended Ohio State’s 22-game winning streak in the first battle of the “Ten Year War” between the two men. Jon Stewart likens the schools’ rivalry to the longstanding feud between the Sunnis and the Shiites. In the early 90s, the Columbus punk scene produced a hardcore band called the Dead Schembechlers, whose tracks included “Buckeye Surfer Girl” and “The Ann Arbor Chainsaw Massacre Christmas Song.” Five years ago, when Ohio State and Michigan were ranked #1 and #2 in the country, Schembechler died the day before the game. (Ohio State won 42-39.)
1. AUBURN vs. ALABAMA
First game: 1893
Series: Alabama leads 40-34-1
The SEC is the most competitive conference in college football. And this is its most intense rivalry. For the last two seasons, the winner of the Iron Bowl has gone on to win the BCS national championship. And in both of those seasons, that eventual championship team had to pull off a dramatic come-from-behind win against its bitter cross-state rival to keep those title hopes alive. After last year’s loss, a 62-year-old Alabama fan poisoned two venerated 130-year-old oak trees on the Auburn campus, prompting Auburn alum Charles Barkley to comment: “And people want to know why [Alabama] ranks 48th in education.”
