College rivalries– you gotta love them! I got a chance to be at three different universities, and each has their own distinct rivalry with one or more other universities. So– in honor of the upcoming INTENSE football game this weekend for USC, who will be playing against Notre Dame, here are the top five rivalries in my book, which is based on my own track and field experiences as a student-athlete:
1. USC and UCLA / USC and Notre Dame: I have to say, this IS the rivalry for all sports. Football, basketball, track, water polo– you name it, it’s intense!!! I got a chance to see this a few months ago when we had the dual meet at UCLA– it was intense on both sides! All athletes take any competition with UCLA very seriously! I would also put the rivalry between USC and Notre Dame pretty high as well– so I might consider it to be a tie! 🙂
2. Florida and Florida State: When I was at Florida, I knew a lot of people that said that they would never, ever consider to go to another school other than Florida and that FSU would not even be a factor. At Florida, they called FSU Seminoles the “Criminoles.” Pretty intense also in most sports!
3. Florida and Tennessee: I saw this first hand when I was competing at the SEC Outdoor Championships in 2003, and when I won the shot put, I did the Gator Chomp on the award stands, and the Tennessee fans weren’t too happy with me! In the SEC, there seems to be a lot of rivalries with Florida including LSU and Georgia (of course! They have to have a neutral place to even have their football game!).
4. Army – Navy: Kristin says that this rivalry is BEYOND intense, and she went to West Point. Both schools do so many things to each other and the games are really exciting. Army and Navy have even names that they call each other! This rivalry has been going on for years! I remember when I got a letter from Navy about recruiting and Kristin told me that she would never speak to me again if I went to Navy. Yikes!! Hey, aren’t we on the same team? 😀
5. Michigan – Ohio State. I remember when I was getting recruited by Michigan in High School, I mentioned that I got a letter and I talked to the coach at Ohio State– and it was like– WHAT??!! We saw this past weekend how big the football game was, and it’s like that for all of the sports at these two schools!
Honorable Mentions: I have to mention some other rivalries that I feel that are pretty amazing as well! Here they are: Texas vs. Oklahoma, Stanford vs. Berkeley, Oregon vs. Washington.
Well– we have to see what happens this weekend!!! Should be a great game, and FIGHT ON TROJANS!!!!!!!!!!!!
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