It's officially Rivalry Week, a celebration of the blood feuds and petty grievances that make college football so singular. But while hatred for your oldest opponent is the most important thing, that alone does not make a great rivalry make. Some great branding helps too — and that's what we're here to honor today.
Because it just so happens that some of the best rivalries in the sport also have some downright incredible names. Some are self-evident — say "The Game" and everyone in Michigan and Ohio knows exactly what you meant — but some ... well, let's just say some need a little bit of an explanation.
Want more rivalries? Explore FanSided’s Rivalry Week Hub, our interactive deep dive into the traditions, history and moments that define college football’s fiercest matchups.
Pitt vs. West Virginia: The Backyard Brawl
It's hard to go wrong with alliteration, especially when that alliteration involves some kind of brawl. So just how did Pitt-West Virginia get its name? No one's quite sure who specifically was the first to dub it the Backyard Brawl. But it's not hard to figure out how they came up with the idea, given that the two schools are separated by just 75 miles of I-79. Even beyond that physical proximity, though, is a deeper familiarity that's bred all sorts of contempt.
"The thing is, we're all basically the same people," WVU director of athletics content John Antonik told ESPN back in 2022. "The people in West Virginia are coal miners, and a lot of the people that supported Pitt are steel workers."
Of course, while Morgantown is nestled in the forests of West Virginia, Pitt is a decidedly urban campus, which has helped foster the sort of class warfare that all great college rivalries are made of.
Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State: Bedlam
They say that anything can happen in Bedlam, and while that hasn't necessarily been true on the field when these two teams get together — Oklahoma leads the all-time series 91-20-7, making this one of the most lopsided major rivalries in the country — it's inarguable that this is a near-perfect name.
Funny enough, though, Bedlam doesn't trace its roots to football at all. The name actually stems from the wrestling rivalry between the Sooners and Cowboys, two of the country's most storied programs. When they got together, particularly at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, the crowds were so raucous that "bedlam" was the only way to describe it.
Kansas vs. Missouri: The Border War
On the surface, this one seems simple enough: Kansas and Missouri do in fact share a border, after all. But what you might not realize is that this rivalry got its name because these two states in fact fought a literal war against one another in the middle of the 19th century.
As the land previously known as Kansas Territory approached statehood in the 1850s, the question became whether it would be admitted to the union as a free or a slave state. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 stipulated that the issue would be decided by popular vote, prompting people from Missouri — slave state since 1821 — to cross the border and either pretend to be Kansas citizens or engage in everything from intimidation to outright violence. Against that backdrop, an annual football game doesn't seem so bad.
Oregon vs. Oregon State: The Civil War
Thankfully, no such armed conflict exists between the Ducks and Beavers (at least we think; we're not biology majors, and we don't know what goes on among our nation's freshwater animals). But the moniker has stuck to describe Oregon-Oregon State regardless, thanks to one particularly epic quote nearly a century ago.
The first reference to this game as a civil war dates all the way back to 1929, when Ducks head coach John McEwan used “the great civil war" to describe his team's upcoming clash with the Beavs. Oregon went on to win that game 16-0, McEwan's second straight victory over Oregon State.
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech: Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate
It's hard to describe exactly why, but there's something about this phrase that's just so pleasing on the ear. So it's perhaps fitting that it was the brainchild of an author, Bill Cromartie — UGA class of 1958 — who published a book of the same name back in 1977.
We can't really argue with its accuracy, either. Georgia Tech is now known as the Ramblin' Wreck because its train ride home from a game against Georgia was wrecked by Bulldog fans. Not even World War I could bring the two sides together: Georgia openly mocked Georgia Tech for fielding a team in 1917 and 1918, when many schools did not due to the ongoing war effort, and the Jackets were so miffed that the rivalry went on hiatus from 1919 to 1925.
Auburn vs. Georgia: The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry
Because this particular game is really, really old. (Shocking, I know.) Technically speaking, the oldest rivalry between two teams located in what's considered the deep South is Furman vs. Wofford, which has been played since 1889 and also claims the moniker. But Auburn-Georgia is a close second, dating all the way back to February of 1892. (The Tigers prevailed in that game, 10-0.)
The two teams have played each other a total of 130 times in all, most recently a 20-10 win for Georgia on the Plains back in October. That's the second-highest total in FBS history, behind only Minnesota-Wisconsin and tied with Virginia-North Carolina — often known as the South's Oldest Rivalry. It's been nearly continuous, too, with stoppages only due to wartime (both World Wars I and II) and the tragic on-field death of Georgia fullback Richard Von Albade Gammon in 1897.
Mississippi vs. Mississippi State: The Egg Bowl
Neither Mississippi nor Mississippi State has an egg-related mascot, and the state of Mississippi isn't particularly associated with eggs. So what gives?
This was a heated rivalry basically from the jump, and in 1926, it finally boiled over: After a 7-6 win in Starkville, Ole Miss fans tried to make off with one of the Bulldogs' goalposts, and State fans resorted to brandishing wooden furniture as a weapon to try and fend them off. (Yes, seriously.) In response, members of each student body got together and vowed that cooler heads would prevail.
Together, they hatched a plan (sorry, had to). A trophy was devised, a gold-plated football on a pedestal that would henceforth be known as The Golden Egg. The Egg was given to the winner each year, in the hopes of staving off any more postgame larceny.
But it wouldn't be until the 1979 edition before the Golden Egg gave rise to the Egg Bowl as an official nickname, thanks to Clarion-Ledger sports editor Tom Patterson. With neither the 3-7 Rebels nor the 3-7 Bulldogs bowl-eligible, the egg would have to do for stakes.
"If none of our teams were going to be good enough to go to a bowl game — and they weren’t — Patterson decided to create one and cover it with a special section," columnist Rick Cleveland explained.
Auburn vs. Alabama: The Iron Bowl
It's a name so evocative that you'd be forgiven for never stopping to think about just what it means. But why is the annual clash between these two in-state rivals known as the Iron Bowl?
To answer that question, we have to start with some Alabama history. Up until the mid-1990s, the Tigers and the Tide most frequently squared off at Legion Field in Birmingham — which just so happened to be arguably the industrial heart of the South, with steel production that rivaled Pittsburgh. All of which brings us to 1964, when Auburn coach Shug Jordan was asked how he and his 6-3 squad would deal with the disappointment of not making a bowl game that season.
"We've got our bowl game," Jordan scoffed. "We have it every year. It's the Iron Bowl in Birmingham."
Unfortunately, that creativity didn't do his team any good on the field, as Auburn lost 21-14 to the No. 2 Tide.
Alabama vs. Tennessee: The Third Saturday in October
It's become firmly ensconced into SEC lore. If you're a fan of either Tennessee or Alabama, as the old saying goes, try not to die or get married on the third Saturday in October — because in either instance the priest might not show up. That's how much this game and this rivalry mean to each team.
Which is why it's so ironic that it got started out of happenstance. The Tide and the Vols first met in 1901, but it wasn't until 1928 when the game was first played on the third Saturday in October, more out of scheduling convenience than anything else. And back in the days of smaller conferences, schedules didn't need to be moved around all that much, so the tradition stuck.
What turned it from a calendar quirk into an iron-clad law is the presence of two legendary coaches, Col. Robert Neyland in Knoxville and Bear Bryant in Tuscaloosa, each of whom made beating their biggest rival priority No. 1. The game has had to move around a bit as the SEC began its expansion and embraced divisional play in 1992, but for the most part, the conference has respected when exactly it should be played.
Florida vs. Georgia: The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party
OK, sure, this game technically hasn't been known as the Cocktail Party since 2006, as both the schools and the SEC wanted to try and curb a tailgating scene that had become truly unhinged. But while we certainly encourage everyone to enjoy alcohol responsibly and on their own terms, come on: A great name is a great name.
And we have former Florida Times-Union sports editor Bill Kastelz to thank. Legend has that, as the rivalry was really taking off in the 1950s, Kastelz coined the phrase after witnessing an inebriated fan offer a drink to a uniformed police officer.
"All the other sports writers in the press box asked me why I wrote that, and I said because it was true," Kastelz recalled back in 2000. "There was drinking all over the place in those days. People would use their binocular cases to put a flask in there and drink very openly, and there was no crackdown."
Turns out that putting the game at a neutral site, with massive parking lots and nothing to do before kickoff, might have some unintended consequences.