Top Ten Sports Rivalries

A sports rivalry is an intense competition between athletic teams or athletes. This pressure of competition is felt by players, coaches, and management, but is perhaps felt strongest by the fans.

With tonight's upcoming Duke - UNC college basketball game I thought it would be interesting to list my top 10 rivalries that come to mind when I think of the preceding definition. For the record, I will be cheering for UNC tonight as Duke is very easy to dislike for me. 1) My UCONN Huskies recorded two of their biggest wins in school history against Coach K and his floor slapping defenders in the 1999 NCAA Championship game and in the 2004 National Semifinal game (en route to another title) - so they pretty much annoy me and 2) My great friend Nick Schmidt is a Tar Heel fanatic - and our mutual friend John Sayler loves Duke - so it is easy to gang up on him and hate the Blue Devils.

Top Ten

10. Cowboys - Redskins - an NFC East rivalry that seems to always have Troy Aikman and Joe Buck ecstatic even though the game sometimes sucks.

9. BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre - a recent rivalry created in the UFC. St. Pierre has won both matches. The first by a controversial split decision and the second one recently with a 4th round corner stoppage. The fight was won by St. Pierre, but controversy again lingered as there is now an investigation into if St. Pierre cheated using Vaseline on his back.

8. Michigan - Ohio St. - clearly a football rivalry that has been dominated recently by the Buckeyes. Michigan on the other hand has been losing to Appalachian State, but keeps on rolling over the Minnesota Gophers in the Big Ten.

7. Leeds High School vs. Minnewauken High School - Separated by 25 miles these two schools used to dislike everything about each other on the basketball floor (now they co-op). For years they co-oped as a football team as North Central Benson - but on the basketball floor all bets were off - and more than likely Leeds came out victorious - and usually went to the state tournament. 6x's in the 90's (winning a state title and finishing runner-up twice).

6. Vikings - Packers - Cheese Heads have had their days with Brett Favre - it is now time for Jared Allen to have his way with Aaron Rodgers for years to come.

5. Sioux - Gophers Hockey - This video should say it all - when you can't get through a handshake (the most respectable part of hockey) - it is a safe bet that you don't like each other at all.

4. Twins - White Sox - Coming off a 1 game playoff last year for the AL Central crown these two teams have combined to win 6 out of the last 7 titles (Twins - 4, White Sox - 2). The Sox got the biggest prize though winning the 2005 World Series w/stinky AJ.

3. Celtics - Lakers - a rivalry that is coming back with Boston's Big Three and the Lakers w/Kobe. This rivalry hopefully can be carried through as the aging superstars retire (KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant). Hopefully Rajon Rondo and Andrew Bynum can carry the torch so this rivalry doesn't die as it did after Magic and Bird.

2. Yankees - Red Sox - when a construction worker tries to bury a David Ortiz Jersey in the new Yankee stadium to curse you - I think a pretty big rivalry exists. Nothing was better than the 2004 title the Sox won as they came back in the ALCS (down 3 games to 0) to defeat the Yanks.

1. Duke - UNC - Nothing says it better than Roy Williams when he referred to Duke as "them guys over there" - When you don't even want to utter the words of your opponent - I don't think there is much love.