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Mike Marteny takes a look at 31 FBS college football teams that hate the other team more than the other hates them. Does your team have a "little brother?"
Does anyone remember November 3, 2007? Yes, 2007 was arguably the best college football season we have ever had. FCS Appalachian State knocked off a top-5 team in the opening weekend in arguably the biggest upset in college football history. Conferences made sense. At least one top-5 team fell every week. No. 1 and No. 2 lost in the same week three times, including conference championship week. It was chaos.
That date alone stands out for one major reason. That was when Michigan's Mike Hart called Michigan State its "little brother." Spartan fans remember it well. They also remember the college football purgatory for Michigan after the utterance. Michigan lost to unranked Wisconsin the next week. It was humiliated by Ohio State, suffering a blowout for the third time that season. Michigan went 8-16 over the next two seasons. Sparty won four straight and seven of the next eight against Michigan. Some "little brother," huh?
Hart later came to regret the jab, but we need to acknowledge its existence. Some teams just aren't the chief rival of the other team. There are some where it's mutual. Ohio State and Michigan are each team's most bitter rival. Same with Oklahoma and Texas. It's the same with Arizona and Arizona State. Sometimes it works out that way. We're going to take a look at some "little brothers." These are in alphabetical order since being on the list is probably offensive enough. We don't need to rank them. Some are on it for multiple teams!
Air Force
Little brother to Army and Navy
Air Force is the little brother in the triumvirate of the Commander-in-Chief series. Army-Navy has always been and will always be bigger. Even in years where Army or Navy aren't as good as the other and Air Force is better, the Falcons are still the little brother in the series. Sorry, guys.
Arkansas
Little brother to Texas A&M and Texas
Poor Arkansas. Many of the treasured rivalries of the SWC were lost when the Hogs moved to the SEC in 1992. This was the first cautionary tale of a team losing all of its rivals after leaving a conference that it had been a member of for decades.
The SEC has tried to give Arkansas some rivals, even creating trophy games for the Missouri and LSU matchups. Neither caught on like the mutual disdain that Arkansas fans have for both Texas and the Aggies.
The Texas hate simmered down in the late 90s, but the hate for the Aggies never really went away. The renewal of the "Southwest Classic" in 2009 got this matchup back. The Aggies made it into the SEC in 2012, so it is now a conference rivalry, but it isn't often treated like one.
Here's another place where Arkansas messed up. The Hogs had a good run during the Houston Nutt era, but didn't play A&M during that time. The Aggies have won 13 of the last 14 games of the series since Arkansas became a conference opponent again.
When Texas A&M joined the SEC, the SouthWest Classic became personal, and the Aggies proceeded to use the game as a years-long experiment to figure out just how many excruciatingly painful ways they could beat the razorbacks in front of Jerry Jones. https://t.co/rZ1NnTx8R6
— 979Turn&Burn210🔥👍 (@TurnAndBurn210) October 14, 2025
The Hogs still lead the series 42-37-3. Despite the closely matched series, the Aggies hate Texas far more than Arkansas. The beef with Texas was still there, with the two teams playing in each of the last two seasons.
They will continue to face each other until at least 2029, but the SEC hasn't made plans beyond that. Some Arkansas fans still claim Texas as the biggest rival. Some say A&M. The Millennials say LSU. If that's the case, Arkansas may be the first team to be a little brother three times.
Arkansas State
Little brother to Memphis
This is the oldest rivalry for both schools, and even has a cool name (the Paint Bucket Bowl), but it is literally the only rival that Arkansas State has. Memphis has played Southern Mississippi more and has a contentious relationship with Louisville fans.
That started on the hardwood and has transferred to the gridiron. Memphis plays UAB for a giant bronze rack of ribs. One of those teams would be a bigger rival for Memphis. These teams had some great matchups in the mid-2000s, but Memphis has been a better football program for the last decade.
The series itself isn't that lopsided (33-23-5 in favor of Memphis), but this game doesn't mean nearly as much for the Tigers.
Baylor
Little brother to TCU
These two are natural rivals, each being a parochial university in Waco, Texas, in the early 1900s. The rivalry was so fierce in the early days that Baylor fans allegedly burned down the TCU administration building on the eve of the 1910 game. TCU moved to Fort Worth after the fire.
These teams have played 121 times and are still conference rivals, but the proximity of SMU to TCU and the battle for supremacy of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex meant more once the TCU campus moved north.
Unlike most of the rest of the list, this series is close. TCU leads 60-54-7. Baylor dominated in the early years in Waco. TCU had supremacy in the Davey O'Brien and Sammy Baugh years and again from 1955 to 1971, when TCU won 15 of the 17 meetings.
Baylor won eight in a row from 1974 to 1981, bringing the series nearly even at 42-40-7. TCU has won eight of the last 10 games.
Another thing that makes Baylor unique is that it could overtake SMU as the chief rivals since the Battle for the Iron Skillet was ended by TCU, with no further matchups planned.
Cincinnati
Little brother to Miami (OH)
This is a weird one. Many will say that Cincinnati is Miami's biggest rival because the game was first played in 1888, has been played 128 times, is the longest non-conference rivalry in college football, and the series is nearly even. Cincinnati leads the series 61-60-7.
However, the "Battle of the Bricks" rivalry with Ohio is the main one for the Redhawks. Being part of the same conference is certainly something that fueled many of these rivalries. Meeting the team at a crucial time in the conference season or playing a game for a conference title helps deepen the rivalry.
Miami doesn't have that with Cincinnati. The Bearcats have been in eight different conferences. They don't really have a big rivalry against anyone besides Miami.
The last game in this series will take place this season. It could be the end of the rivalry as we know it since Cincinnati is now part of a "power" conference. There are no more planned games after 2026.
Colorado
Little brother to Nebraska, Utah, and/or Colorado State
Much like Cincinnati, the Buffaloes have been in several conferences and are left with few rivalries that survived. The "Rocky Mountain Showdown" between Colorado and Utah was heated from the early 1900s to the early 1960s because they were in the same conference.
The two teams are back in the same conference again, but since that rivalry was dormant for 50 years and then wasn't protected by the Pac-12, it never really caught back on. It may again now that both are in the Big 12, but it's doubtful that it will reach the fervor of Nebraska-Colorado from the mid-1980s until the teams left the Big 12 in 2011.
Even if you consider Utah and Colorado State to be bigger rivals to Colorado, Colorado is still the little brother in both scenarios. Utah-BYU is bigger than Utah-Colorado will ever be, and Colorado State's rivalry with Wyoming is bigger.
Sorry, Colorado. They're just not that into you. Nebraska is once again in search of a chief rival, but Iowa is far bigger than Colorado right now, and Oklahoma was before Iowa. It was a nice Bill McCartney-fueled rivalry for 15 years or so, but it never carried on. At least not from the Nebraska side.
East Carolina
Little brother to North Carolina State
Despite playing football since 1934, the Pirates don't have many rivals. They didn't play the big schools in the state for the first 30 years of the program. They started a competitive series with the Wolfpack in 1970 since the schools are only 83 miles apart.
That rivalry happened every year until 1987, when ECU fans rioted and tore down the goalposts and parts of the field at Carter-Finley Stadium in 1987. Jim Valvano terminated the series after this incident.
The schools didn't meet again until the 1992 Peach Bowl. A game was scheduled in 1996 at Charlotte because NC State didn't trust ECU fans at its home field. In all fairness, there were two minor incidents at Carter-Finley Stadium before the final straw.
In 1997, the state legislature mandated that North Carolina and NC State must play ECU once every two years. That has rekindled the rivalry again. The teams met in the 2024 Military Bowl with East Carolina winning 26-21.
ECU dude #15 stole the NCST guy’s towel…
and it ignited a full field brawl where refs were cut & bleeding & 8 players were ejected pic.twitter.com/LpDSCq7Eil
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 29, 2024
A massive brawl broke out between the teams with 38 seconds left, wounding a referee. The bad blood between these schools isn't going away, but the Pack still consider North Carolina their biggest rival on the gridiron.
In this instance, North Carolina State won't make the list. North Carolina's rivalry with Duke is mainly in basketball. The matchup with NC State is far more important in football.
Florida State
Little brother to Florida
When it came time to choose a protected rival within the state, Florida chose the Seminoles over Miami. The bad news is that Georgia is still the most bitter rival for the Gators.
Miami claims that it was because the Hurricanes were getting too good. The fact remains that Florida State and Florida had some really good (and really important) games in the Steve Spurrier/Bobby Bowden eras.
Florida's season often revolves around the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Even when it didn't, Florida still had eyes on Georgia because it helped decide the SEC East most years. The game with Florida State was more of a rivalry of fun. When it came down to it, Georgia and LSU were the ones Florida really wanted to win.
Georgia Tech
Little Brother to Georgia
This is a rivalry where the importance has fluctuated over the years. It was the big rivalry for both schools throughout most of the 1900s, but Georgia Tech's lack of football success, especially against Georgia, in the last 25 years has lessened the importance of the rivalry for Georgia.
Florida, and to some extent Alabama, are larger rivals for the Bulldogs. That's not so for Tech. The school's fight song contains the line "to hell with Georgia." Georgia leads the series 72-41-5, but has won eight in a row and 21 of the last 24 meetings.
Meanwhile, the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party has been a big piece of the SEC race in most seasons since 2000. This is one of the cases where the school in the smaller conference is being left behind by an SEC behemoth.
Hawaii
Little brother to Fresno State
It's hard to have a rival when you're 2,000 miles away from everyone. Hawaii found a way to make it happen. Despite a friendly rivalry with UNLV and a trophy to go with it, that one isn't heated. The matchup with Fresno State is.
Coaches on both sides have accused opposing fans of violence. In fact, the trophy for this rivalry, Hawaii's most-played, comes from an incident in 2002. Hawaii coach June Jones claimed that a fan threw a screwdriver from the seats at the Hawaii bench.
Fresno issued an apology, but never found evidence that a screwdriver was thrown. Nevertheless, the trophy was born.
Hawai’i and Fresno State compete for the Golden Screwdriver Trophy, which commemorates an incident in which a screwdriver was (allegedly) flung at and narrowly missed Hawai’i HC June Jones’ head. Tonight is their last scheduled game. pic.twitter.com/py8LyrhJRJ
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 21, 2025
Fresno fans have gone as far as to warn fans of opposing teams traveling to Hawaii about the behavior of the fans. Nothing has happened between other teams. Only Fresno.
Despite the hostilities, Fresno's biggest rival is still San Jose State, leaving Hawaii as the little brother to its most-played rival. Fresno's move to the Pac-12 in 2026 puts the series in jeopardy.
Iowa
Little brother to Minnesota
Floyd of Rosedale is all that is right with college football: Two teams of grown men losing their minds over possession of a bronze pig ♥️🏈🐷pic.twitter.com/hgGFiRbZZC
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 21, 2023
The Floyd of Rosedale trophy and the story behind it make it one of the best trophies in college football. Believe it or not, Minnesota has a bigger rival that it has played for longer than Iowa.
It's Wisconsin. Minnesota and Wisconsin have played the most times in FBS history (135). Even the trophy (Paul Bunyan's Axe) is arguably better than Floyd. Lafayette and Lehigh hold the college football record with 161 games played.
You can argue that Iowa State is a bigger rival for Iowa than Minnesota, but they have only played yearly due to a governor's mandate, and only for the last 50 years. Nebraska is very close to being Iowa's biggest rival, but for now, it's still Minnesota.
Floyd is great, but sometimes the trophy is bigger than the game.
Iowa State
Little brother to Kansas State and Iowa
The Cyclones don't have a lot of rivals since they have been bad for much of their existence. Kansas State is the same way. Farmageddon is the longest continuously played series in FBS, but it's not the chief rival for Kansas State.
Kansas has another university in the same state and the same conference. Those usually make for the best rivalries. The Sunflower Showdown isn't a great name, but it's the only rivalry that really matters for Kansas and Kansas State.
If Missouri and Kansas were still in the same conference, the Border War may have it beat. However, the Sunflower Showdown is now THE game for both Kansas schools.
Farmageddon is great, but it seems like the fans who aren't fans of either team enjoy the game more than the players do. The same can be said for ¡El Assico! The name is often better than the rivalry.
Iowa fans get far more worked up for Minnesota or Nebraska than for Iowa State.
LSU
Little brother to everyone
LSU's biggest and oldest rival is Tulane. The teams played for the Tiger Rag (or Victory Flag if you're a Tulane fan) from 1940 until it was destroyed in a fire in 1982. The teams even went so far as to create a new flag for the series in 2001.
The series was renewed in 2006 and continued until 2009, when LSU bought out the remaining six games of the series. Well, first, it tried to get Tulane to play all of the games in Baton Rouge. Of course, Tulane declined. LSU still owes a return trip to New Orleans as a condition of the buyout, but it hasn't yet happened.
Even if it does, there is no chance of these two getting back together. Tulane is miffed at LSU getting too big for the series and throwing its weight around. The state of Louisiana is upset about this series not happening anymore, but hasn't taken any action to force the teams into reconciliation.
Southern Miss is a bigger rival to Tulane now. LSU has a longstanding series with Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Mississippi, and Mississippi State. LSU isn't the main rival of any of those schools.
LSU boxed out the biggest rival and the regional rival. The SEC has tried to create rivalries for LSU, but all of those teams have bigger rivals. If by some miracle this series is restored, it will be one of the more heated rivalries in college football ... especially if Tulane can field a team like it has the last two years.
Maryland
Little brother to Virginia and Navy
Maryland was the little brother even before it left the ACC. Virginia and Virginia Tech were always the big game around the Beltway. Maryland and Navy had the chance, and they even have the Crab Bowl trophy.
That series lost heat because Navy canceled the series in 1964 after a Maryland player gave an obscene gesture to Navy. The series wasn't played from 1965 to 2005 because of the incident. Even if it had taken hold, Army-Navy was always going to be bigger than the in-state rivalry between Maryland and Navy.
Miami (FL)
Little brother to Florida State
Miami had a good rivalry with Florida, but the teams haven't played regularly since 1987. You can blame the SEC for that. Due to that, Miami's rivalry with Florida State is now the most heated. The teams have played every year since 1966.
Unfortunately, the feeling isn't completely reciprocated. Florida State's chief rival is Florida. Florida protected that series over the Miami series, so there is a three-way bad blood from Miami toward the other two schools.
The rivalry with Florida State was more heated in the 80s and 90s, but it's still there, at least from the Miami side.
If Florida had protected the Miami rivalry instead, that would be one of the most heated rivalries around. Those two teams really didn't like each other when they played.
It's still there with Florida State, just not as severe. From the Florida State side, it's still all geared toward the Gators.
Michigan State
Little brother to Michigan
Michigan State is the original little brother. Sure, it has played 118 times since 1898 and has an interesting trophy of Paul Bunyan (who was from Minnesota), but the series itself is lopsided. Michigan has 75 wins to Sparty's 38.
The 2007 game featured a lot of pregame jabs, with Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio saying that the Spartans took a moment of silence for Michigan after the season-opening loss to Appalachian State.
Michigan completed its sixth straight win over Michigan State and held its moment of silence for the Spartans after the game. Mike Hart didn't stop there.
In all fairness, Hart was 4-0 against Michigan State. In those four games, Hart ran for 684 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He had probably earned the right to call Michigan State little brother.
The bad news for Michigan is that the Spartans won eight of the next 10 games after Hart's comment. The game hasn't been competitive in recent years, but the Spartans and Dantonio handed Michigan the worst decade in the rivalry after Hart's comment.
Missouri
Little brother to South Carolina and Oklahoma
The SEC got the two Columbias together once Missouri joined the conference, and it became a nice little rivalry. The problem is that it's nowhere near as heated as the Palmetto Bowl with Clemson. Nice try, SEC.
When Oklahoma joined the SEC in 2025, Missouri got a historic rivalry back. Much like the Peace Pipe, much of whatever rivalry was there is now gone.
Oklahoma's rivals are Texas, Oklahoma State, and Nebraska in that order. The Sooners don't have room for Missouri. Perhaps if Missouri were still in the Big 12, the Iowa State rivalry would have flourished.
Instead, the Tigers are left without the Border War, without the Victory Bell (Nebraska), and without the Telephone (Iowa State). Now, they get the fabricated Mayor's Cup with South Carolina and the Battle Line with Arkansas. The Tigers aren't close to being the biggest rival of either team.
Nebraska
Little brother to Iowa and Oklahoma
Oklahoma running back Spencer Tillman fighting for every yard against Nebraska
Everything about that snap bespeaks college football. Losing Sooners vs Huskers on Thanksgiving week made the sport a little less — I think we can all agree on that pic.twitter.com/NHLFVcASXY
— Mark Schipper - 5th Down CFB (@5thDownCFB) April 27, 2026
Nebraska would have been on this list even if it had never left the Big 12. Oklahoma was Nebraska's biggest rival for decades before the Big 12 took it away, but the Cornhuskers were never the biggest rival for Oklahoma. It was, still is, and always will be Texas.
Nebraska and Oklahoma were rivals, but they also had a mutual respect for the opposing players and coaches. There was still hatred, but no matter what, Oklahoma always hated Texas more.
The arrangement between Texas, Oklahoma, and the Texas State Fair allowed both Texas and Oklahoma to build other rivalries around Thanksgiving since their game is always during the Texas State Fair. Texas had it with A&M. Oklahoma had it first with Nebraska, then with Oklahoma State.
The Big 12 replaced Oklahoma with Colorado for Nebraska, but Nebraska fans never hated Colorado as much as Oklahoma, even in the later years of the Big 12.
Nebraska's rivalry with Iowa since joining the Big Ten is turning into a really good one, but Iowa has more heated rivalries with Minnesota and Iowa State.
New Mexico
Little brother to New Mexico State
It's a rare occasion when the state's flagship university is the little brother to the "state" one, but this is one of those instances. The Aggies have a fierce and long-standing rivalry with UTEP.
The Miners and Aggies, separated by just 45 miles on I-10, play for two trophies. The teams have played a total of 102 times. Albuquerque is three hours away from Las Cruces.
FINAL: UTEP 42, NMSU 35
After going down 24-7, UTEP scored 35 consecutive points to run away with the win over its Battle of I-10 rival at Aggie Memorial Stadium.
The Silver Spade Trophy and Mayor’s Cup is headed back to El Paso. pic.twitter.com/viKvw2AmBf
— Sam Guzman (@SamGuzmanTV) December 1, 2024
Proximity helped foster the heated rivalry between the Aggies and Miners. It also helped in the creation of not one, but two trophies. Albuquerque was just too far away in the early days.
Notre Dame
Little brother to USC, Michigan State, and Navy
We could even add Michigan to this list if the rivalry were still going. Notre Dame is the low-hanging fruit for this piece.
The refusal to join a conference gave the Irish more scheduling autonomy, which was important in the first 100 years of college football. Now, it arguably hurts the Irish.
I know that Notre Dame doesn't "need" a conference, and it doesn't want to answer to anyone. That's not the point. The point is that conferences are now too powerful.
Teams in mega conferences are tightening up out-of-conference schedules, especially on games during conference season. That's part of the reason why USC ended its series with the Irish. It didn't want to play Notre Dame during the Big Ten season.
It will be the same with Michigan State if the Irish ever want to play it outside of September. Notre Dame joining the Big Ten is no longer a bad idea, and it would get a lot of these rivalries back on the table.
The Irish would still be the little brother, but there would at least be a chance of them overtaking the chief rival.
Sadly, that will never happen. Not as long as the Irish keep getting concessions from the CFP to have a ridiculously easy schedule and still be gifted a playoff spot.
Oklahoma State
Little brother to Oklahoma
This one is a true little brother situation. It has a great name (Bedlam), but the series has been very lopsided. Oklahoma has won 91 of 118 meetings. The Cowboys only have 20 wins. Six of those are this century, including two of the last three.
Oklahoma State ruined Oklahoma's shot at another championship in 2001 and 2002. Even though Barry Sanders had a big game against the Sooners in his Heisman season of 1988 (215 yards and two touchdowns), he never beat the Sooners.
36 years ago today: One of the most famous plays in Bedlam history.
OU led 31-28 with less than a minute to play as Mike Gundy fired a pass to the end zone. OSU looked to have a receiver open, only for it to be dropped on 4th down.
It’s one of the most painful Bedlam moments… pic.twitter.com/Ho8eFQVWHx
— The REF (@KREFsports) November 5, 2024
Neither did Thurman Thomas. Barry Switzer famously told his defending national championship team not to hurt Thomas, so the backup doesn't get in. Sanders was the freshman backup in 1986.
Oklahoma has three winning streaks of more than 10 games in the series. Oklahoma State only won once in the first 18 meetings.
Oregon State
Little brother to Oregon
132 meetings mean nothing. Oregon still left its in-state rivals to follow its biggest rival, Washington, into an asinine coast-to-coast monstrosity of a conference. This rivalry even has a name fitting of schools separated by about 50 miles -- The Civil War.
Oregon has the upper hand in the series, but unlike many of the little brothers in this piece, Oregon State kept it fairly competitive. Oregon only leads by 21 wins in a rivalry that spanned 132 years.
This rivalry has the distinction of having a trophy that neither team wants. It was lost for more than 40 years and turned up in Oregon's trophy case for diving instead of football.
Oregon and Oregon State play for a wooden sculpture of a platypus because platypi look like half-duck half-beaver hybrids. Look at what they are taking from us pic.twitter.com/zKZxqjwumw
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) August 4, 2023
As you can expect, with schools just 50 miles apart, there were pranks galore. In 1954, about 50 Oregon students infiltrated the Oregon State bonfire and lit it early.
Half of the students were captured, painted orange and black, and made to do menial labor by fraternities. Another was painted and paraded around campus with a sign that read "I'm a dumb Duck."
As heated as this rivalry was, Oregon still claims Washington as its chief rival. Oregon winning 15 of the last 18 meetings is part of the reason.
Penn State
Little brother to Pittsburgh and Ohio State
By the time Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1994, most rivalries had passed it by. The rivalry with Pitt was enormous for the state, but Penn State ended talks about renewing the rivalry until at least 2030.
The Nittany Lions have played Pitt 100 times, by far the most of any school. They are no longer Pitt's fiercest rival. West Virginia is, in no small part, because the Mountaineers are willing to play them.
As for Ohio State, that's the closest thing that Penn State has to a rival in the Big Ten. They have a glorious collection of knick-knacks that passes as a trophy with Michigan State (the Land Grant Trophy), but there's no heat to that rivalry.
Pitt is the one that brings the heat, and like LSU, Penn State refuses to play the in-state rival.
San Diego State
Little brother to Fresno State
Fresno's biggest rival is Silicon Valley mate San Jose State. Though this rivalry has the cooler trophy (Oil Can) and has been more competitive of late, San Jose State is still the team that Fresno wants to beat.
You could also say that San Jose State is the biggest rival of San Diego State. The series has gone on about as long as the Fresno one, but the main problem remains. San Jose is still more interested in beating Fresno than the Aztecs.
Syracuse
Little brother to Pittsburgh
Pitt is the only rival that the Orange have left. West Virginia is in a different conference. Penn State refuses to play them. Colgate isn't FBS anymore.
We all know who Pitt's biggest rival is. The Syracuse heyday of Jim Brown and Ernie Davis brought the heat to the Penn State games, but once they were no longer close, Penn State thought it could do better.
Part of this is geography for the Orange. The nearest power team to the Orange is Penn State, which is nearly three hours away.
Tennessee
Little brother to Alabama
The Iron Bowl is king in Alabama, especially with the success of both programs over the last 30 years. The Third Saturday in October just isn't as big without Bear Bryant around.
Tennessee has rivalries with Kentucky and Vanderbilt, but something was lost when they took away the Beer Barrel. That and the relative ineptitude of both of those football programs make those games mean less to the Vols.
The Third Saturday in October is the MOST IMPORTANT day of the year for Tennessee fans.
They have not beaten Alabama in Tuscaloosa since 2003.
Alabama OWNS the Vols.
— SEC Numbers Guy (@secnumbersguy) October 19, 2025
They want Bama. That's the team Tennessee really wants to beat. While there is still some heat from the Alabama side, it doesn't quite match the Iron Bowl.
Texas Tech
Little brother to Baylor and TCU
Baylor and TCU are more into each other than Tech, and the Frogs are more into SMU than both. It's a bizarre hate triangle. Part of this was because in the early years, both TCU and Baylor were located in Waco. They were always more natural rivals.
Baylor is Texas Tech's most-played rival. They have played every year since 1956, even when they weren't in the same conference. This is a fairly heated matchup, but TCU will always be more important to Baylor than Tech.
There aren't points of contention between Texas Tech and Baylor, such as the opposing school setting fire to buildings on campus. That actually happened on the eve of the 1910 meeting. Nothing was ever proven, but that ran TCU out of Waco. It rebuilded in Fort Worth.
Tulsa
Little brother to Oklahoma State
The Turnpike Classic began when both teams were members of the Missouri Valley Conference from 1935 to 1956. The games were mostly even at that time.
These teams are only an hour apart, but have not been part of the same conference in 70 years. That has led to the teams heading in different directions.
Oklahoma State fans will always hate Oklahoma more than Tulsa. With Bedlam unlikely to be picked up anytime soon, Oklahoma State's rivalry with Tulsa could grow again ... especially since Tulsa won in Stillwater for the first time since 1951 last year.
Tulsa scores the first TD of the game against Oklahoma State 😯
Watch this Friday night matchup in Stillwater on ESPN and the ESPN App 👀 pic.twitter.com/TRdDaf9XIh
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 19, 2025
Utah State
Little brother to Utah
Utah has a long history against BYU, and an even longer one against Utah State (113 games). However, they can't match the Holy War. The Holy War is for Utah supremacy.
BYU and Utah State are primarily Latter-day Saints enrollees and play for a nice Wagon Wheel trophy. The Utah series has a cool name (Battle of the Brothers), but it just can't match the intensity of the rivalry between the other in-state schools.
This is especially true now that the Holy War is a conference game. Just wait until one of these things decides a conference championship.
Vanderbilt
Little brother to Tennessee
There is no name for the rivalry. There's not even a trophy. There is only proximity and one team's ardent dislike for the other. The feeling is not mutual. Sometimes I'm not even sure that Tennessee realizes that Vanderbilt is in the same state.
Vanderbilt won nine in a row from 1901 to 1913 and didn't lose any of the first 12 meetings, but it has been all Tennessee since then. The Vols won 71 of the 82 games from 1928 to 2011, including 22 straight from 1983 to 2004.
Vanderbilt didn't win back-to-back games in the series for 87 years, from 1927 to 2013. Vanderbilt did have a minor recent run of success with five wins in seven years from 2012 to 2018. Tennessee had won six in a row again until Diego Pavia showed up in the 2025 meeting.
Mama, there goes that man!#2Turnt pic.twitter.com/XwFvFVZjlM
— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) November 29, 2025
Washington State
Little brother to Washington
Don't get me wrong, the Apple Cup was hotly contested when I lived in Washington State, and it still was up until the end of the Pac-12 as we knew it. But if you ask any Washington fan who they really want to beat, it's Oregon.
It was even when I lived in Washington in the late 80s-early 90s. This was the Drew Bledsoe-Mark Brunell-Billy Joe Hobert years. The Apple Cup was usually a good game. It gained a little more steam when the apple was officially named Washington's state fruit in 1989.
This is another in-state rivalry in which one team dominates. The Huskies have won 77 games to Washington State's 34. The Huskies gained the upper hand in the series by winning 11 of 13 contests from 1959-71 and by winning eight straight from 1974-81.
Who doesn't love a dramatic Apple Cup finish? (2002, 2007) pic.twitter.com/leO7ozTCEs
— 2StripesCPD (@2StripesCPD) April 2, 2026
Conference realignment has put this series in jeopardy, but Washington State and Oregon State look like they may have a little something going into the new Pac-12.
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