College football rivalries: Ranking the top 10 for 2019
By Phil Poling
College football rivalries are a big part of what makes college football the greatest sport in the world. These are the 10 best rivalries entering 2019.
Rivalries are an innate part of sports. Simple geographic locations have propped up plenty of rivalry games in college football, while conference affiliations bolstered certain matchups, as well. Success can create a rivalry, too, especially if two teams constantly meet and compete.
Every rivalry on this list is scheduled to play in 2019, save for one, but there’s an excellent chance those two will wind up meeting regardless. But there were a handful of rivalries that just couldn’t be included because they haven’t met on the field in awhile – Texas vs. Texas A&M, Oklahoma vs. Nebraska and Pitt vs. West Virginia, to name a few.
Our first rivalry contains two California-based Pac-12 schools, neither of which are in Los Angeles. This rivalry’s first meeting took place in 1892, making it one of the oldest in college football.
No. 10: California vs. Stanford
This season’s meeting between the University of California Berkeley and Stanford University marks the 100th consecutive season the Golden Bears and Cardinal square off. Their first matchup came in 1892, making this rivalry over 100 years old, but the teams didn’t play from 1906 through 1918 in favor of rugby.
Plenty of exciting moments have come from this matchup, too, most notably, “The Play,” from the 1982 game. After a John Elway-led Stanford touchdown drive to put his team ahead with four seconds to go, a kick return that resembled backyard football won Cal the contest. After four laterals, the original ball-carrier, Kevin Moen, scampered into the endzone for the game-winning score as time expired. He was forced to maneuver through more than just the kicking team, though, as the Stanford band had begun celebrating on the field; Moen plowed through a band member as he crossed the goal line.
Stanford owns the all-time series over Cal, 59-43-10, including their current nine-game win streak. That’s already their longest in the history of the rivalry, while Cal’s is just five straight wins.