Football fans around the country can rejoice, not because the BCS computers got destroyed, but because Saturday marks the start of what the Cold, Hard Football Facts know as the Pigskin High Holidays.

 

It begins with the first of three straight Saturdays featuring the nation’s most ancient gridiron rivalries. The outcomes of entire seasons often hang in the balance.

 

Just last year USC stood at No. 2 in the rankings and appeared to be a lock for the national championship game. Then they lost to cross-town rival UCLA. Michigan and Ohio State have destroyed each other’s national title hopes so many times you could write a book about it.

 

But even if the game has no bearing on the national title picture, the names of these games alone tell you how important they are to fans, students, alums and even entire states: there “The Game,” “The Big Game,” “The Civil War,” “The Border War” and even “the Holy War.”

 

The best are borne of ancient tribal battles from centuries past, or the socio-economic stereotypes that divide glitzy Private U (USC) from safety school (UCLA) or arbiter of state culture (Alabama) from cow-country farm school (Auburn).

 

With so many great matchups, who could pick just one? Chicago Cubs great Ernie Banks is famous for saying “Let’s play two!”

 

Well the Cold, Hard Football Facts fill our plate even higher with a look at the 20 best rivalry games to be played over the next three weeks.

First played: 1897

All-time record: Michigan 58-40-6

Also called: The Game

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Michigan got the better of Ohio State during the famous “10 Year War” period which pitted legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes against former OSU assistant and Michigan coach Bo Schembechler.

Note: Despite their long history of winning Big Ten championships and competing for national titles, the 2006 game was the first time in the two schools faced each other while ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the country.

First played: 1892

All-time record: Stanford 54-44-11

Also called: The Big Game

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Cal used five laterals on “The Play.”

Note: With possibly the greatest finish in sports history, “The Play” gives this rivalry a signature moment like no other. Not to mention the fact this writer’s parents and grandparents were in the stands as Cal went into the end zone and demolished the trombone. (The writer himself was not yet even a fetus in the mind’s eye of his parents.)

First played: 1884

All-time record: Lafayette 75-62-5

Also called: The Rivalry

Cold, Hard Football Fact: With 142 meetings, Lafayette and Lehigh have played more often than any other two schools in college football history.

Note: The school with the best record in all varsity sports each year is awarded the All Sports Trophy. 

First played: 1890

All-time record: Navy 51-49-7

Cold, Hard Football Fact: 1996, Since 1967, these former college football powerhouses have met just once when both teams had winning records (1996).

Note: The winner of the season series between Army, Navy and Air Force each year is awarded the Commander in Chiefs Trophy.

First played: 1893

All-time record: Alabama 38-32-1 

Also called: The Iron Bowl

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Alabama (11) or Auburn (4) have met 15 times when at least one school is undefeated.

Note: Along with state supremacy, the winner of this game also gets the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Award.

First played: 1875

All-time record: Yale 65-50-8

Also called: The Game

Cold, Hard Football Fact: 16, the number of points Harvard scored in the final 42 seconds of the 1968 game to force its famous 28-28 “win.”

Note: In 2004 Yale students impersonated the non-existing Harvard pep squad and handed out cards which Harvard fans held up spelling out “WE SUCK”.

First played: 1900

All-time record: Washington 64-24-6

Also called: The Apple Cup

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Drew Bledsoe threw a late 44-yard touchdown pass to Phillip Bobo in 1992. resulting in Bobo sliding into a pile of snow under the goalpost, in what still is one of the most memorable Apple Cup’s of all-time.

Note: Washington State has never won three straight Apple Cups.

First played: 1929

All-time record: USC 41-28-7

Also called: The Crosstown Rivalry

Cold, Hard Football Fact: The USC and UCLA campuses are separated by just 10 miles.

Note: Each school has a name for the week before its rivalry game. UCLA calls it “Beat SC week. USC names it the more daunting “Conquest.”

First played: 1894

All-time record: Oregon 55-45-10

Also called: The Civil War

Cold, Hard Football Fact: 0, or the number of points scored in the 1993 game. The Beavers and Ducks battled to a 0-0 tie in 1993, marking the most recent – and with the advent of overtime – most likely the final scoreless tie in college football.

Note: The victor in The Civil War once received a platypus trophy, as the platypus is a cross between a duck and a beaver.

First played: 1890

All-time record: Minnesota 59-48-8

Trophy: Paul Bunyan’s Axe

Cold, Hard Football Fact: With 115 meetings, Minnesota vs. Wisconsin is the most played Division 1-A game in history.

Note: The Gophers and Badgers once played for a carved wooden slab of bacon. The bacon disappeared only to be found years later in a Wisconsin storage closet.

First played: 1958

Also called: Sunshine Showdown

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Bobby Bowden has suffered 15 of his 85 Florida State losses at the hands of Florida.

Note: During the 1990s both teams were ranked in the top 10 each time they met.

First played: 1909

All-time record: Clemson 63-37-4

Also called: Battle of the Palmetto State

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Former Clemson star Charlie Whitehurst is the only quarterback in this rivalry to win four games.

Note: The 2004 game known for the brawl that left both teams out of postseason play was also the last game coached by Lou Holtz.

First played: 1891

All-time record: Tied 53-53-9

Also called: The Border War

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Kansas won the 1960 meeting, but was later forced to forfeit because they used a ineligible player.

Note: The Kansas-Missouri gridiron battle was preceded by the actual border war over slavery in the 1800s that precipitated the Civil War. The game was recently moved from campus to neutral-site Arrowhead Stadium and lost some of its luster when it was renamed “the Ford Border Showdown.” Not quite the same ring as “the Border War.”

First played: 1894

All-time record: Texas 73-35-5

Also called: Lone Star Showdown

Cold, Hard Football Fact: This rivalry is the fist in college football history to be featured on a Wheaties cereal box.

Note: This matchup is the longest running rivalry game for both schools. The importance is also shown in their respective fight songs, each of which mentions to the other school.

First played: 1901

All-time record: Ole Miss 59-38-6

Also called: The Egg Bowl

Cold, Hard Football Fact: Mississippi State led the intra-state rivalry for 41 of its first 50 years. Ole Miss has led the series every year since.

Note: The game gained its nickname as a result of the 1920’s trophy, which featured a rugby-style bronzed football resembling an egg.

First played: 1893

Also called: Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate; battle for the Governor’s Cup

Cold, Hard Football Fact: The series was suspended from 1917 to 1924 because of a dispute over a parade float.

Note: Georgia’s colors originally included “old gold” but coach Charles Herty removed the “old gold” because it resembled Georgia Tech’s yellow and “symbolized cowardice.”

First played: 1895

All-time record: Virginia Tech 46-37-5

Also called: Commonwealth Cup

Cold, Hard Football Fact: The Hokies and Cavaliers met as conference rivals for the first time in 2004, after Virginia Tech joined the ACC.

Note: The two teams have played annually since 1970, but the Commonwealth Cup was not introduced until 1996.

First played: 1899

All-time record: Arizona 44-35-1

Trophy: The Territorial Cup

Cold, Hard Football Fact: The first football meeting between the schools in 1899 reportedly drew 300 fans.

Note: The Territorial Cup is the oldest trophy in college football, dating back to the first game between the two schools.

First played: 1892

All-time Record: Illinois 51-44-5

Also Called: Sweet Sioux Tomahawk

Cold, Hard Football Fact: While some intra-state rivalries seek neutral locations, all 100 match-ups between the Wildcats and Illini have taken place in Evanston or Champaign.

Note: The two schools originally battled for a carved wooden Indian statue, before it was replaced by a tomahawk when the statue proved too difficult to transport.

First played: 1922

All-time record: Utah 53-32-4

Also called: Holy War

Cold, Hard Football Fact: It took 20 years for BYU to finally defeat Utah.

Note: The game is often referred to as “Church vs. State” as BYU is privately owned by the Church of Latter Day Saints and Utah is a public institution.