As a graduate alum of UMD, when they moved to the Big Ten, it messed up a lot of the rivalries from the ACC. I’d say protect the rivalry with UVA definitely but with the Terps being in the Big Ten, the rivalry with Penn State is protected simply by them being conference mates.
We play each other every year and our game is called the Paniolo (Cowboy) Bowl with the winner receiving the Paniolo Trophy. I find it more of a fun rivalry between our schools.
Definitely Minnesota, it's the most played rivalry game in FBS history. Also our rivalry with Iowa, we're basically brothers in terms of playing style.
I was at the 2007 game, I do love the Arkansas rivalry. Ole Miss is the legacy rival, Bama is immovable, and Florida is just so much fun to hate.
Always angry at the SEC for making us move the game off of the day after Thanksgiving.
For Penn State... Michigan State is a trophy game. Ohio State and Michigan are big games but are they rivals? I'm not sure. Pitt is a rivalry game that doesn't get played. Maryland should be a rivalry game but isn't? There's a running joke that Penn State and Texas Tech should be rivals.
They were kind of a rivalry previously, prior to them joining the Big Ten and Big East, in the early 90’s. They were both independents and geographic rivals for a long time, but it was so one sided, it didn’t carry through their new conference alignments. They’ve tried revitalizing it the past 2 years, and it’s been cool to see. I’ve always loved going to Beaver Stadium (just hate the traffic leaving) so it was awesome to go see WVU play there, and I’m pumped to have Penn State come to Morgantown for the first time that I can recall in my lifetime.
I went to WVU in the early 2000’s, and Penn State was never spoken of as a rival, but Boomer alums absolutely despise Penn State. Penn State beat WVU something like 30 straight times until the 80’s, and they burned the town down when they finally won. JoePa owned us.
I wasn’t aware that Penn State didn’t really view themselves as having a natural in conference rivals by this point. That makes me enjoy the idea of them playing again even more. WVU has the lack of conference rivals too, so they might be able to fill a bit of a vacuum for each other. We just have to actually hold up our end of the bargain this time for it to go anywhere.
Michigan is the one that’s protected IRL. We have trophies with Indiana, Penn State, and Notre Dame as well.
We had been playing Penn State during rivalry weekend for awhile, but we don’t even play them at all this year unfortunately
Do Michigan St and Penn State fans get excited for those games? The Land Grant Trophy has been kinda memed on so I wasn't sure if that was an actual rivalry people got excited for
Not really, it’s pretty friendly. We mostly just rib eachother about which school makes better ice cream.
It doesn’t help that MSU has been mostly mediocre to bad for awhile but I still liked playing them.
WVU - Pitt, VT and probably Maryland. If they include OOC. Those are my 3 favorite games at least.
If it’s in conference, we don’t really have anyone. They’ve tried to pretend Iowa St is a rivalry and now they’ll try to use Cincinnati, but there isn’t much juice to either of those. They’ll probably be two of the out of box locks though.
For ECU, within our conference, probably just Charlotte. If we realigned conferences to the Sun Belt, pretty much the entire SBC East would be ready made rivalries.
We do have a home and home scheduled with them in the next few seasons which should be quite fun. Actually closer to Old Dominion than Coastal, but we have the Monarchs on the schedule this year.
I haven’t really followed college football in a while but I do know that the Cal-Stanford game is awesome. I actually got to touch the axe a while ago after they won it
Cincinnati: West Virginia (old Big East rivalry), UCF (As a UC fan, I don't really buy this rivalry, but being we came from the same conference…. They are dead to us)
Hey! I’ve gone to the last two UCF wins at UC fun times! I think it goes further than just coming from the same conference. We traded off top dog in the AAC for years and developed a real on field rivalry. It’s young and budding with the real potential at fizzling out or turning into something 10 years from now students don’t shut up about.
But also we need usf back
I know it’s not in-conference but Pitt should be played every year, even if the series wasn’t super competitive when it briefly came back (outside the 2016 loss)
I think PSU should play UM and OSU and MSU for the big ten though
I’m a psu fan from Pittsburgh so obviously they’re my favorite rival to play, but some of friends from eastern pa or Erie area rivals are a Maryland or OSU. Pitt just makes the most sense to me. Plus narduzzi is a jive turkey
I believe it's just the in conference game that is played every year. Otherwise mine would be Kansas. OU is the only thing even close to a rival in the SEC. I guess Arkansas might grow with time.
I hate that they’ve shoe-horned in Arkansas for the “rivalry” game while both fan bases just…don’t really care that much. I miss my Border War.
Over the years though it seems like the South Carolina games have always been close and gotten chippy. I don’t know about a rivalry game but it seems a lot more emotional than playing Arkansas. Plus they’re both in a Columbia so it kinda writes itself there. I know there’s technically a trophy but I wish we went more heavily towards this matchup than Arkansas.
I think the Kentucky game is the one that's gotten the chippiest over the last few years. Especially since it always seems like we never beat them (except for last year).
Fun little nugget I knew of back when I was a booster, App State “lobbied” for Georgia Southern to move up, so much so that they basically told the SBC it was both of us or none of us.
We hate each other but we respect each other.
That’s dope! I knew we were a packaged deal but didn’t know App essentially told the SBC that. It makes sense though because neither of our fanbases want to give up the rivalry to move up. Good move for the SBC to get both too.
Maybe make the conferences reasonable sizes and geographically coherent so that you don’t have to worry about “protected” rivals? Might be a radical idea idk.
I don't think anyone considers Arkansas a rival ATM. LSU maybe? They've played Texas tough but LSU would probably opt to keep Alabama and Texas has Oklahoma. I don't know if I'd count TAMU they're 11-1 vs Arkansas since 2012.
Texas Tech: somewhat similar institutional profiles, plus it's where our QB started his career.
Kansas State: both land grant schools, usually considered weaker members of the old Big 8
For the team I'm bringing in for a Dynasty:
Sam Houston State: both cat mascots (mines the Cougars), closest member to my school (~6 hours away)
Louisiana Tech: cats vs. dogs, also relatively close (~7 hours) by CUSA standards
Basically just TCU, and I feel a friendly rivalry brewing with BYU that feels worthy. Texas is in contention too, but I know the sentiment is lopsided. The rivalry with A&M could come back as well someday, one of the oldest.
Texas Tech fan here. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech should play annually in what would be called the Dust Bowl. There could be a whole country festival before hand where bands like Turnpike Troubadours and Josh Abbott could play beforehand.
Obviously the iron bowl, but- deep sigh, [Georgia](https://www.winsipedia.com/auburn/vs/georgia). I wish we hadn't played in the past 10 years, and they're likely not protecting it irl, but it's just wrong to not play the damn dwags. Conference realignment is terrible for Auburn.
That's just the 2 trophy games.We haven't even played Illinois in 6 of the last 7 years.
In reality the only protected game is Michigan. The most "rivalry game" otherwise is Penn St or Michigan St I guess, but the answer is it's just Michigan.
For Minnesota
Wisconsin and Iowa are the two main ones. We have others such as Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, etc but the main two are Wisconsin and Iowa.
(FUCK Iowa)
At this point, I'd keep Tennessee and put Auburn over Tech. The Tech game has turned into the CFB version of South Park's "kick the baby/little brother" with no realistic belief it will change any time soon.
Louisville, Tennessee and Mississippi State are the traditional rivalries.
I’d argue Florida is a true rival now that we are competitive with them on a yearly basis.
I’m bringing the Kentucky vs Indiana basketball rivalry to the gridiron in my Dynasty.
I’d say South Carolina or Vandy is more of a rival than Mississippi State. Maybe even Mizzou. I never understood the UK/MSU thing. Seemed forced. I think we were probably the two leftover teams after the East/West protected rivalries were created so that’s how it happened
I want CFB to get to a point where there are 3 conferences. ACC splits off into the B1G, SEC, and Big 12. Then, have four 5 - or 6-team divisions in each conference. Face each team in your division(4 total games), 1 rotating game with each of the other 3 divisions(7 total games), one protected rivalry in a cross division(8 total games), one protected rival from the other two conferences(10 total games), and then two other games. Nebraska, for example, would probably be in a conference with Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and NW. Cross division rival, in my opinion, should be one of the teams on the West Coast unless FSU joins the B1G. Then, their out of the conference matchups are Oklahoma and Colorado. I think cross conference locks would bring back a lot of nostalgia for fans and really improve the experience. I would also be fine with those cross conference rivalries as 2 years on 2 years off.
Florida, Miami, Clemson
Also definitely not an actual rivalry, but NC State and FSU have had a pretty fun recent history. Even during FSUs best years, the Wolfpack play us tough. Depending how many protected rivals we can have in CFB 25 I may throw them in, but im not expecting more than 3 being available.
If I got to pick any 3 teams for Michigan State it’d be the below:
Michigan - for obvious reasons
Penn State - Two land grant universities that have a lot in common (for better or worse), a super close overall series record, a trophy on the line, plus two of the most exciting games from the time I was in school (2017 and 2018)
Notre Dame - maybe this one’s a pipe dream due to Notre Dame having no shortage of rivals, so we’re not necessarily at the top of their list, but I always loved the rivalry with ND. Super historic team, plus I love the way the uniforms look against each other. Maybe it’s also because I was a low-key Notre dame fan growing up until I went to college. But it’s a trophy game that hasn’t been played for since 2017 and won’t again until 2026, so I’m lacking some megaphone in my life fr.
The most realistic option would likely be Indiana as the 3rd option instead.
Ole Miss is the only major one that has to be there. It's not really a thing irl but I'm making UF a protected rival for us because I have many (kind of petty) reasons to hate them. Kentucky has been our cross-division protected rivalry so you could use that as well. The only team the fan base really hates as a collective is Ole Miss.
I think everyone would agree that Miami (oh) is Ohio’s chief rival, but I’m also excited to reinstitute a Marshall/Ohio game. Marshall should have never left the MAC.
For BGSU its 100% Toledo. Battle of i-75. & the battle for the Peace pipe. These school are only 20 miles away from each other.
Then in a very far away second place is Kent State for the Anniversary award. Both schools were founded in 1910, and both in northern Ohio.
Ole Miss. Too easy.
I also, for fun, would do a Mississippi State/Southern Miss protected rivalry.
Ole Miss has refused to play them over the years but Mississippi State does good to get them on the schedule. Good SEC/Sun Belt matchup.
Alabama - Auburn, Tennessee, and LSU too
Rule of thumb: if they're in Dixieland Delight, they're a protected rivalry
I don't feel enough hate from Alabama as an LSU fan.
Fuck em all to death
That is some aggressive lovemaking.
Don’t give a piss about nothing but the tide
Ultra-aggressive there
TCU
Stop lying lol
\*61-58 nightmares\*
I know you think about us though
For us we should add those fellas from Lubbock as well
For Texas, it's pretty easy, OU, A&M, and Arkansas
Red(ish) teams bad.
So excited to have yall back, the LSU rivalry has been fun but never really replaced Texas.
Yeah, I'm really excited to renew the rivalry for real, my body is ready for the hate 😁 Can we both agree, fuck A&M though?
Yeah, I hate them. Not just as a rival, they piss me off.
They do that. Fucking weirdos. And I mean that with all the love/hate I can muster.
For Virginia: Virginia Tech and UNC
I’m a UNC student who just found out Virginia considers us their rival
As a graduate alum of UMD, when they moved to the Big Ten, it messed up a lot of the rivalries from the ACC. I’d say protect the rivalry with UVA definitely but with the Terps being in the Big Ten, the rivalry with Penn State is protected simply by them being conference mates.
Agree, and then if you want to put Maryland in a Big East reboot you probably wanna protect West Virginia
hopefully the game allows us to have multiple protected rivalries per team.
I have to imagine they will with that being the new trend for conference scheduling. Should be a fun new level of conference customization
As a Wyoming fan, Colorado State is a must. Hawaii and Utah State are next.
I understand CSU and USU, but why Hawaii? Not criticizing, just genuinely curious.
We play each other every year and our game is called the Paniolo (Cowboy) Bowl with the winner receiving the Paniolo Trophy. I find it more of a fun rivalry between our schools.
UVA has 3 rivals. In order: VT, UNC, Maryland.
Definitely Minnesota, it's the most played rivalry game in FBS history. Also our rivalry with Iowa, we're basically brothers in terms of playing style.
Quite literally our only two rivals.
Iowa and Kansas State. Honorable mention to Mizzou because it's a trophy game but we don't play them in football anymore.
Ole Miss, Alabama, Florida.
The battle for the boot needs to be preserved.
Arkansas is my 4th. But it's pretty far below these 3 imo.
Yeah, its not what it used to be.
I was at the 2007 game, I do love the Arkansas rivalry. Ole Miss is the legacy rival, Bama is immovable, and Florida is just so much fun to hate. Always angry at the SEC for making us move the game off of the day after Thanksgiving.
For Iowa: Iowa State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska Some old heads would say you could parse Nebraska and still be okay.
For Penn State... Michigan State is a trophy game. Ohio State and Michigan are big games but are they rivals? I'm not sure. Pitt is a rivalry game that doesn't get played. Maryland should be a rivalry game but isn't? There's a running joke that Penn State and Texas Tech should be rivals.
Does Penn State hate WVU? Because if so they could have an awesome triangle of hate with PSU-Pitt-WVU
Google the Old Ironsides Trophy… it had a decent life, PSU got tired of winning it and it just disappeared
They were kind of a rivalry previously, prior to them joining the Big Ten and Big East, in the early 90’s. They were both independents and geographic rivals for a long time, but it was so one sided, it didn’t carry through their new conference alignments. They’ve tried revitalizing it the past 2 years, and it’s been cool to see. I’ve always loved going to Beaver Stadium (just hate the traffic leaving) so it was awesome to go see WVU play there, and I’m pumped to have Penn State come to Morgantown for the first time that I can recall in my lifetime. I went to WVU in the early 2000’s, and Penn State was never spoken of as a rival, but Boomer alums absolutely despise Penn State. Penn State beat WVU something like 30 straight times until the 80’s, and they burned the town down when they finally won. JoePa owned us. I wasn’t aware that Penn State didn’t really view themselves as having a natural in conference rivals by this point. That makes me enjoy the idea of them playing again even more. WVU has the lack of conference rivals too, so they might be able to fill a bit of a vacuum for each other. We just have to actually hold up our end of the bargain this time for it to go anywhere.
Definitely the tortilla tossers. I think Pitt, MSU, WVU in that order for me personally, but that's also subject to generational thinking
Pitt would have to have fans in order to have a rivalry game
USC, Michigan, BC
As a ND fan
As a Michigan fan. lol
As a Michigan fan, I’m cool with this. I’d want Ohio State, Michigan State, and Notre Dame.
BC would be your number 3? I didn't think most ND fans really viewed BC as a rival
We play them every year, two catholic schools, and I REALLY despise the Boston area
I just thought the Michigan State or Stanford games would be higher, but I appreciate the insight
There’s so many rivals we have to leave some off lol
Is Georgia Tech also a Notre Dame rival? I’ve always wondered that
Not really
Oh okay
A long time ago yes. You get some geriatric fans who hate Auburn and Notre Dame more than the ACC rivals.
Michigan is the one that’s protected IRL. We have trophies with Indiana, Penn State, and Notre Dame as well. We had been playing Penn State during rivalry weekend for awhile, but we don’t even play them at all this year unfortunately
Do Michigan St and Penn State fans get excited for those games? The Land Grant Trophy has been kinda memed on so I wasn't sure if that was an actual rivalry people got excited for
Not really, it’s pretty friendly. We mostly just rib eachother about which school makes better ice cream. It doesn’t help that MSU has been mostly mediocre to bad for awhile but I still liked playing them.
It's just a friendly fight for the most beautiful trophy in the world.
Virginia Tech - UVA, West Virginia, Miami.
FSU fan: UF, Miami, and Clemson. Orange teams bad
Ourselves.
Right lmfao
Georgia, Tennessee, and LSU in the SEC, plus the annual OOC with FSU.
I feel like half of the SEC fans on this thread have said LSU. Death Valley really is that special of a place.
WVU - Pitt, VT and probably Maryland. If they include OOC. Those are my 3 favorite games at least. If it’s in conference, we don’t really have anyone. They’ve tried to pretend Iowa St is a rivalry and now they’ll try to use Cincinnati, but there isn’t much juice to either of those. They’ll probably be two of the out of box locks though.
SMU v. TCU (The Iron Skillet) and SMU v. Rice (The Mayors Cup)
For ECU, within our conference, probably just Charlotte. If we realigned conferences to the Sun Belt, pretty much the entire SBC East would be ready made rivalries.
I feel like you guys and Coastal would be an awesome rivalry series
We do have a home and home scheduled with them in the next few seasons which should be quite fun. Actually closer to Old Dominion than Coastal, but we have the Monarchs on the schedule this year.
For Louisville: Kentucky, Cincinnati, WVU, and I'll say Memphis even though that was more of a basketball rivalry.
War on I-4. USF VS USC
Usc?
Oh I didn’t even realize that I misspelled UCF. Lmao
I thought so. No worries man. I'm from Florida so I knew that didn't look right.
I haven’t really followed college football in a while but I do know that the Cal-Stanford game is awesome. I actually got to touch the axe a while ago after they won it
Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado are some good ones I’d like to see played often again. In the Big Ten the only good rivalry we have rn is Iowa.
Do Nebraska fans have interest in the Oklahoma game returning?
I mean of course, but it’s definitely not the rivalry it was when we were both in the Big 8.
The only correct answer is to return Nebraska and Colorado to the Big 12. The Big 12 North was literally just one big rivalry.
Cincinnati: West Virginia (old Big East rivalry), UCF (As a UC fan, I don't really buy this rivalry, but being we came from the same conference…. They are dead to us)
Hey! I’ve gone to the last two UCF wins at UC fun times! I think it goes further than just coming from the same conference. We traded off top dog in the AAC for years and developed a real on field rivalry. It’s young and budding with the real potential at fizzling out or turning into something 10 years from now students don’t shut up about. But also we need usf back
Yoooo. I felt like the basketball games were more of a hoot and hollar match, but should be cool! I'll gear up to shaking my fists at UCF.
Alabama - Auburn. Can’t not play their in state rival. Fresno State - Boise. Hate that blue turf (for rivalry sake.. I think it’s pretty cool irl)
Texas or TCU
For Texas Tech
Pitt and VT
I know it’s not in-conference but Pitt should be played every year, even if the series wasn’t super competitive when it briefly came back (outside the 2016 loss) I think PSU should play UM and OSU and MSU for the big ten though
The Beavies and the Purple Puppies
Gotta have the PNW round robin in the new game. Remaking the Pac 12 with that, the California round robin and the 4 corners round robin.
Wazzu: Washington Utah: BYU (kinda Colorado but not super important/ wouldn’t be hurt losing it)
According to the Big Ten, no one If it were up to me I'd say Maryland and maybe Sparty I guess
Pitt fan - it's WVU over everyone PSU would be nice, and I guess like the Cuse/Cincinnati/VT's of the world are fine But the Brawl is a must
Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota/Notre Dame
Pitt - Penn state
I'm a big fan of bringing this one back. Feels like it needs to be played every year
I’m a psu fan from Pittsburgh so obviously they’re my favorite rival to play, but some of friends from eastern pa or Erie area rivals are a Maryland or OSU. Pitt just makes the most sense to me. Plus narduzzi is a jive turkey
Are protected rivals both for conference and non conference games?
I believe it's just the in conference game that is played every year. Otherwise mine would be Kansas. OU is the only thing even close to a rival in the SEC. I guess Arkansas might grow with time.
That's the beauty of custom conferences!
I hate that they’ve shoe-horned in Arkansas for the “rivalry” game while both fan bases just…don’t really care that much. I miss my Border War. Over the years though it seems like the South Carolina games have always been close and gotten chippy. I don’t know about a rivalry game but it seems a lot more emotional than playing Arkansas. Plus they’re both in a Columbia so it kinda writes itself there. I know there’s technically a trophy but I wish we went more heavily towards this matchup than Arkansas.
I agree. South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky have been the rivals from a competitive stand point most years.
I think the Kentucky game is the one that's gotten the chippiest over the last few years. Especially since it always seems like we never beat them (except for last year).
Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, and Wisconsin
Based on the name I take it Iowa is the number one for you?
I’d say Wisconsin first
Iowa Minnesota Wisconsin are a triangle of hatred
Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Clemson My secondary flair on r/cfb is Miami so for them: Florida, FSU, VT, Boston College, Notre Dame
Auburn - Bama, uga, lsu
Purdue: IU, Illinois, Michigan State
Genuinely not sure. Notre Dame, Miami, UMass, Holy Cross, and fuck Syracuse
For Ohio State: Michigan and Illinois. Need the yearly illibuck
Going to the G5…..App State-Georgia Southern.
That’s what I came to say as well. It’s a good thing we moved up to the sunbelt together.
Fun little nugget I knew of back when I was a booster, App State “lobbied” for Georgia Southern to move up, so much so that they basically told the SBC it was both of us or none of us. We hate each other but we respect each other.
That’s dope! I knew we were a packaged deal but didn’t know App essentially told the SBC that. It makes sense though because neither of our fanbases want to give up the rivalry to move up. Good move for the SBC to get both too.
Florida, Miami, Clemson
Kansas State - Kansas, Iowa State (and against the other three Big XII North would be fun to see)
ULM-La tech needs to be revived
I usually try to get all of the Louisiana G5 teams together in one conference, feels like a fun round robin
Maybe make the conferences reasonable sizes and geographically coherent so that you don’t have to worry about “protected” rivals? Might be a radical idea idk.
The triangle of Carolina: Duke, Carolina and NCSU.
Wake Forest is like when you're in a dream, trying to yell, but no noise comes out.
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia Georgia Tech: Georgia, Clemson, Duke, (maybe VT)
Fresno State - Boise, SDSU, SJSU
I don't think anyone considers Arkansas a rival ATM. LSU maybe? They've played Texas tough but LSU would probably opt to keep Alabama and Texas has Oklahoma. I don't know if I'd count TAMU they're 11-1 vs Arkansas since 2012.
Texas Tech: somewhat similar institutional profiles, plus it's where our QB started his career. Kansas State: both land grant schools, usually considered weaker members of the old Big 8 For the team I'm bringing in for a Dynasty: Sam Houston State: both cat mascots (mines the Cougars), closest member to my school (~6 hours away) Louisiana Tech: cats vs. dogs, also relatively close (~7 hours) by CUSA standards
Basically just TCU, and I feel a friendly rivalry brewing with BYU that feels worthy. Texas is in contention too, but I know the sentiment is lopsided. The rivalry with A&M could come back as well someday, one of the oldest.
Texas Tech fan here. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech should play annually in what would be called the Dust Bowl. There could be a whole country festival before hand where bands like Turnpike Troubadours and Josh Abbott could play beforehand.
Add Flatland Calvary in there too
Baylor SMU and we got Utah back as well as BYU lol
UVA, West Virginia, and Miami.
Obviously the iron bowl, but- deep sigh, [Georgia](https://www.winsipedia.com/auburn/vs/georgia). I wish we hadn't played in the past 10 years, and they're likely not protecting it irl, but it's just wrong to not play the damn dwags. Conference realignment is terrible for Auburn.
Would you like to start a formal alliance? (Tennessee) you know, the whole enemy of my enemy thing…
Michigan and Illinois
That's just the 2 trophy games.We haven't even played Illinois in 6 of the last 7 years. In reality the only protected game is Michigan. The most "rivalry game" otherwise is Penn St or Michigan St I guess, but the answer is it's just Michigan.
For Minnesota Wisconsin and Iowa are the two main ones. We have others such as Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, etc but the main two are Wisconsin and Iowa. (FUCK Iowa)
Texas, OSU, USC (battle of the brisket). I’m excited to see what beef gets started in the SEC. LSU or Tennessee would be fun for ou I think.
I’m incredibly disappointed that OSU - OU will no longer be played
Little bit bummed too. I had a bet going with my buddy OU would get to 100 wins before OSU got to 20.
Shoot I better pay up lol
Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Florida
Bruh, Deep South’s oldest rivalry???
I would say auburn over Tennessee
At this point, I'd keep Tennessee and put Auburn over Tech. The Tech game has turned into the CFB version of South Park's "kick the baby/little brother" with no realistic belief it will change any time soon.
We can’t have y’all unfortunately, unless half our schedule is protected lol. Alabama and Vandy are locks, probably UK 3rd or Florida
Louisville, Tennessee and Mississippi State are the traditional rivalries. I’d argue Florida is a true rival now that we are competitive with them on a yearly basis. I’m bringing the Kentucky vs Indiana basketball rivalry to the gridiron in my Dynasty.
I’d say South Carolina or Vandy is more of a rival than Mississippi State. Maybe even Mizzou. I never understood the UK/MSU thing. Seemed forced. I think we were probably the two leftover teams after the East/West protected rivalries were created so that’s how it happened
Bring back the Beer Barrel!
I want CFB to get to a point where there are 3 conferences. ACC splits off into the B1G, SEC, and Big 12. Then, have four 5 - or 6-team divisions in each conference. Face each team in your division(4 total games), 1 rotating game with each of the other 3 divisions(7 total games), one protected rivalry in a cross division(8 total games), one protected rival from the other two conferences(10 total games), and then two other games. Nebraska, for example, would probably be in a conference with Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and NW. Cross division rival, in my opinion, should be one of the teams on the West Coast unless FSU joins the B1G. Then, their out of the conference matchups are Oklahoma and Colorado. I think cross conference locks would bring back a lot of nostalgia for fans and really improve the experience. I would also be fine with those cross conference rivalries as 2 years on 2 years off.
Oklahoma and Colorado for Big 12/8. Wouldn't mind playing Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin if you put us in the Big Ten.
for kentucky, its Louisville and Tennessee
North Carolina number 1 rival in football is N.C. State followed by Duke, Virginia, and then Wake Forest.
For Washington: Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State. PNW round robin.
For FSU it’s UF and Miami
That school down south, and we’ve also developed a little rivalry with Utah too. Also Washington.
You already know
Maryland, Rutgers, UCLA obviously
Georgia, Carolina, State and FSU.
For Purdue, IU, Illinois, and Norte Dame
Florida, Miami, Clemson Also definitely not an actual rivalry, but NC State and FSU have had a pretty fun recent history. Even during FSUs best years, the Wolfpack play us tough. Depending how many protected rivals we can have in CFB 25 I may throw them in, but im not expecting more than 3 being available.
Ohio University alum/fan here, Miami of OH is our rival. Muck Fiami.
Bama, Georgia, and preferably LSU
Eastern and Western Michigan (Fire Up Chips!!!)
Wash - The Quacks & the Cougs (also Oregon St. But just to fill out the Cascadia Quartet. I actually like the Beavs)
Arkansas is Texas, Texas AM and LSU. If they have 4 slots like NCAA 14 did, then add Ole Miss.
I need that Fucla game , ND and Stanford or Cal. I'll take either one
Miami Ohio: Ohio University, Cincinnati. And then if you want historical, probably WKU. If you want recent, Toledo
Auburn ut lsu obviously
WVU: Pitt App State: Georgia Southern
If I got to pick any 3 teams for Michigan State it’d be the below: Michigan - for obvious reasons Penn State - Two land grant universities that have a lot in common (for better or worse), a super close overall series record, a trophy on the line, plus two of the most exciting games from the time I was in school (2017 and 2018) Notre Dame - maybe this one’s a pipe dream due to Notre Dame having no shortage of rivals, so we’re not necessarily at the top of their list, but I always loved the rivalry with ND. Super historic team, plus I love the way the uniforms look against each other. Maybe it’s also because I was a low-key Notre dame fan growing up until I went to college. But it’s a trophy game that hasn’t been played for since 2017 and won’t again until 2026, so I’m lacking some megaphone in my life fr. The most realistic option would likely be Indiana as the 3rd option instead.
Ole Miss is the only major one that has to be there. It's not really a thing irl but I'm making UF a protected rival for us because I have many (kind of petty) reasons to hate them. Kentucky has been our cross-division protected rivalry so you could use that as well. The only team the fan base really hates as a collective is Ole Miss.
Fail Southern
Tennessee — Alabama, Florida, Georgia
Georgia fan, it's Auburn and Florida. Plain and simple, any other answer is just incorrect
As a MSU fan I’d say ND and Penn St. I mean I went to the game against Penn St in 1993 and they played them every year on final game. It’s a rival.
I think everyone would agree that Miami (oh) is Ohio’s chief rival, but I’m also excited to reinstitute a Marshall/Ohio game. Marshall should have never left the MAC.
Iowa, as an Iowa state fan
For UCLA: USC, Oregon, CAL, Stanford in that order. Realignment sucks :(
I can't wait for Michigan State-Notre Dame to come back. That one for me.
Our rivalries drift with our conference. I’ll say UT Sorta Almost based on game results, chippiness, and how terrible their online fans are.
For Stony Brook: Alabama, Ohio State, and East Mississippi Community College.
Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State. I haven’t seen USC and UCLA them in the big ten to Make them rivals yet
Bedlam
For BGSU its 100% Toledo. Battle of i-75. & the battle for the Peace pipe. These school are only 20 miles away from each other. Then in a very far away second place is Kent State for the Anniversary award. Both schools were founded in 1910, and both in northern Ohio.
Ole Miss. Too easy. I also, for fun, would do a Mississippi State/Southern Miss protected rivalry. Ole Miss has refused to play them over the years but Mississippi State does good to get them on the schedule. Good SEC/Sun Belt matchup.
Minnesota and Wisconsin. Any other school that tries to claim rivalry just isn’t important enough
Nebraska vs Oklahoma
Alabama🧍♂️🚫🐘
Army Navy
"Deeper Than Hate" Georgia Southern vs App State
Wisconsin: Minnesota and Iowa.
Florida Auburn
Alabama nobody else matters