Sportsmanship is all well and good, but let's be honest: The games are more fun when there's a little hate involved. It's what makes rivalries simmer, and rivalries are woven tightly into the fabric of competition.
And nowhere in sports do rivalries run as deep and spirited as in college sports. Blame it on the student sections, the battling bands, the misbehaving mascots -- or the millionaire coaches who sometimes just can't get along. For whatever reason, campuses are where the blood really runs bad and the fans really get mad.
So the midsummer quest was to identify which college rivalries are hottest now, right here in 2009. No living on past glory.
But you will find plenty to disagree about -- which is another staple of all rivalries and all lists. Let the partisan arguing begin.
Date: Oct. 17
Place: Dallas
Why It's Hot Now: Everything picks up where it left off last season -- with the Sooners and Longhorns at each other's throats. Both teams should start this year in the top 5. Both quarterbacks, Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Colt McCoy of Texas, should start the season as prime Heisman Trophy candidates. And neither program has forgotten (or forgiven) the back-and-forth hissing over who deserved to win the Great Big 12 South Tiebreaker Debate of '08. At last count, everyone but the Blue Angels had been hired to fly a biting banner over the other team's stadium. More airplanes and acrimony in '09, please!
Upper Hand Today: Texas. Yes, Oklahoma won the divisional tiebreaker, but the Sooners lost the head-to-head contest last fall. And the Longhorns own the more recent national championship.
Upper Hand Historically: Texas leads the all-time series 58-40-5, but Oklahoma leads 19-16-3 since 1971.
Boomer to Bevo: People don't cry over deaths in the family for as long as you guys have cried over the way last season played out.
Bevo to Boomer: When we get to a January bowl game, we know how to win it.
According to Fonde Tech is now the Aggies big rival.How the M ighty have fallen.
HOOKEM!
