College Basketball Rivalries

Thinking about the Carolina-Duke game today, it dawned on me, the college basketball rivalries feel dead to me outside this game. Am I right? I’m not sure but I’ll write my way through my thinking.

I think Duke and UNC are the starting point. For 30+ years, this has been the ultimate rivalry. Great teams, big games, true hate. Duke and UNC also engendered in ACC opponents a sense of rivalry, even if it was one-sided in nature. As the goliaths of the ACC, beating either was a big deal. Maryland games against these teams was must-see-TV. 

Mentioning Maryland brings me to what has probably caused the biggest decline in the rivalry games, conference realignment. Maryland’s hatred of Tobacco Road can’t be recaptured in the Big 18. Think UCLA-Arizona. Maybe not the most notorious rivalry, those were still big games out west.

The Big East has this problem as well. The entirety of the league had a common enemy in Syracuse. As the league broke up, one common theme emerged, everyone was sad to see the Orange leave because the members all liked beating them. Georgetown’s trip to the abyss hasn’t helped but a decade into the new league, it lacks the juice of the Orange.

That’s the ACC’s issue, too. As a smaller league, Tobacco Road was the enemy. Now? It’s a mishmash of schools dotted across the landscape. Beating Duke and UNC still means something but what about the other dozen + teams extending from the Bay Area to Dallas to Miami to Upper NY? 

The Big XIIIII still has Kansas. Beating the Jayhawks is still a badge of honor in the league but they don’t have a Missouri to get their blood boiling. Maybe Arizona-Kansas can become a thing but I doubt it. 

I thing the Big 18 might still have some bad blood rivalries. Michigan-Michigan State hate each other. Indiana-Purdue-Illinois show signs of redeveloping a true hatred of each other. Unfortunately, the league is so bloated, there is way too many “shoulder shrug” matchups. 

I have a lot of old man complaints about college sports and understand the leagues do not care about the fans. This is the one that bugs me the most. Maybe after decades of matchups, things can develop but I doubt the radical reconstruction of college sports allow it to naturally happen. That’s too bad. Good sports hate make it better for the fans, respectfully, of course. While alive in football, it feels much different in college hoops.