Pulled this from a Baylor board of all places:

which is bigger:
UNC-Duke (basketball) or Michigan-Ohio State (football)?

I'd give a slight edge to Michigan-OSU, but to tell the honest truth, I'm kinda apathetic about that rivalry. Now, if I had to decide which was bigger, UNC-Duke or Alabama-Auburn, I'd have to go with Alabama-Auburn. Although I'm a UGa fan, I'm basically required to take a side for this game. I get blitzed with news about it in my paper, local tv sportscast, and even church members talk to me about it. This doesn't even include the numerous co-workers who talk to me about it. I don't see UNC-Duke gripping the state of North Carolina quite as hard like Alabama-Auburn grips the state of Alabama.

DawgNDuckfan, tough call on rivalries. Have to go with Duke/UNC. With the new coach at UNC, can this rivalry get any uglier? Probably the best in the country?

Best rivalries by conference:

SEC: agreed Auburn/Alabama
Big 10: agreed Michigan/Ohio State
Pac 10: USC/UCLA and runner up Stanford/Arizona BB
Big East: Pitt/WVU
Big 12: Oklahoma/Texas

Non conference best FSU vs UF..... In the sec UF Ga is huge... though it has been ruled by UF.

Knightgood,
Lash is right. GA-FL is huge, but so is TN-AL. Books have been written on the 3rd Sat in Oct! Having said that, Al-Auburn is bigger. It combines the historic rivalry of TN-AL with the nastieness of TN-FL(under Steve S.). I could not believe that there is anything bigger. If MI-MI St. was the the Big 10 championship more often, then MAYBE it would be as big--but I doubt it; and I am a Tennessean! Any BB would have to take second place at best.

I agree with you about uFL-FSU. It is huge for a ooc game. If FSU had joined the SEC...wow... it might equal...AL-Auburn!

FBfan

Honest question: if you visited Asheville, NC, how many UNC fans would you find and how many Duke fans would you find? I'm sure you could find some UNC fans living in Asheville, but could you find any Duke fans there at all?? ??? The reason I'm asking this is because the Alabama-Auburn rivalry extends beyond central Alabama into north and south Alabama. Dothan, Alabama is very far from both the UA and AU campuses, but you can still find a lot of passionate Alabama and Auburn fans. Can you say the same for UNC-Duke in Asheville, NC? (which is very far from Chapel Hill or Durham). I'm not saying that UNC-Duke isn't very passionate in the Raleigh-Durham area or isn't very passionate among the players. However, I just don't think that the whole state could be divided into just UNC or Duke fans.


Slightly disagree on the Pac 10. Arizona-ASU is the closest equivalent to Alabama-Auburn out west. I don't think it's as publicized as USC-UCLA, but it's a biggie too.
Another big rivalry in the Big East to me is Miami vs Syracuse. It seems that you guys don't like each other at all.
Texas-Texas A&M is the runner up to OU-Texas, IMO.

Duke-UNC is bigger, but here are the rivalries that I think are the biggest:

Clemson/South Carolina in all sports
Georgia/GT all sports
USC(So. Cal)/UCLA all sports
Duke/UNC basketball
Auburn/Alabama all sports
ND/USC football
Oregon/Oregon State all sports
Oklahoma/Oklahoma State all sports

You're fooling yourself if you think anything in the world means more than Alabama/Auburn. They've been in the same conf. since 1895, they didn't play each other for 41 years because they hated each other so much (it was a $$$ dispute), and even when they decided to play again, it was at a neutral site and the tickets were divided equally. Sorry, but nothing compares to this game. I hate both teams but I'd love to experience that game more than anything that doesn't occur in Tiger Stadium.

DawgnDuck fan, Don't forget Duke is a small private school. They're not pumping out the number of graduates as an Alabama, Ohio State, etc.

What about Army v Navy? The fans may not exhibit the rabid characteristics of patrons of Death Valley at night, but you can't deny the full-out desire to beat the other team and the stakes selt by servicemen and women all over the country.

Forgot all about Army-Navy. That one is big. :)

I'm sure everyone in here has seen this before
http://espn.go.com/endofcentury/s/other/bestrivalries.html

I enjoy 1 sport. College Football.

I'm pretty biased here having grown up in Columbus, so I have to agree that nothing compares to UM vs OSU. Its #1 for more reasons than can be reasonably posted.

However, I lived 45 mins from Auburn University, from 89-92. I think south of the Mason-Dixon line... people would be foolish to think anything is more important than Alabama vs. Auburn. As close as #2 gets to being #1. WAR EAGLE!!!!!

Nice link, Bucknuts... 8-)