NCAA basketball rivalries: Ranking the top 25 college basketball rivalries

No. 4 – Cincinnati Bearcats vs. Xavier Musketeers

• All-Time Series: Cincinnati leads 51-36

Geography is one of the prime motivating factors in developing a rivalry, and so these schools separated by only a few miles were destined to clash with each other. The annual contest between the programs is called the “Crosstown Shootout,” and has been an annual occasion since 1946. For a majority of the rivalry, the games took place on each campus in alternating years.

The series has been pretty evenly matched over the years, and although Cincinnati maintains a decent edge in the overall series, the last 40 years of the matchup have seen Xavier with a slight 23-17 edge.

Game of Note: December 10, 2011 – Xavier def Cincinnati 76-53

This game is noteworthy not because it was a close battle or because it represented positioning and seeding of national or conference importance, but rather for the melee that ensued typifying the animosity contained within this rivalry and ratcheting up the emotion and vitriol for future editions of the Crosstown Shootout.

Although technical fouls and ejections were not foreign to this rivalry, this particular matchup spiraled out of control in the waning seconds with pushing, tackling, and punches thrown. To regain some semblance of order, the referees decided to call the game with time remaining on the clock, and in the aftermath, eight players from among the teams received suspensions.

The brawl led to a rebranding of the game as the Crosstown Classic and to a neutral-site location in subsequent seasons, decisions that were later reversed.