Rivalry games

     This weekend in college football had an odd assortment of rivalry games and a few of them shook up the national rankings. Yet there are a number of rivalry games still to be played. And for unknown reasons, some rivalry games were moved to earlier in the season. Such is the landscape of college football these days.

     In Division III, the big games were the ones which have been played seemingly forever. Franklin and Marshall played Gettysburg College, its storied rival, in Lancaster. This game featured two interesting traditions.  First, that both teams travel U.S. 30, also known as the Lincoln Highway to and from their respective college as had their predecessors. Then there is the Lincoln Football Trophy, introduced in 2014 for the 100th meeting between the schools.  It was designed by Gettysburg Coach Barry Streeter and reflects the stovepipe hat President Abraham Lincoln wore. The wood is from two "witness" trees, one which was situated on the battlefield site in 1863 where the Confederate troops massed and the other outside of a church where casualties were treated. These trees were on the route that the President passed when he gave his Gettysburg address. A bullet found in one of the trees is actually embedded in the stovepipe hat portion of the trophy. For the record, 9-1 F&M handily defeated the Bullets, 51-21, in Coach Streeter's final game.

     The Centennial Conference has the same final games every year--Ursinus-Dickinson, Johns Hopkins-Mc Daniel, Juniata-Susquehanna, and Moravian-Muhlenberg. Other D III conferences, like the NESCAC, preserve ancient rivalries. Kudos to Williams in their overtime win at home versus Amherst. I saw that Randolph-Macon and Hampden-Sydney renewed the hyphen game; Cortland and Ithaca met again; RPI downed Union in the Dutchman Shoes Trophy game. The list can go on and on.

     Being the history buff I am with college sports, I still miss that final game of each season between Centennial Conference members Haverford and Swarthmore, both schools having opted to discontinue football. As I do miss the Little Army-Navy game--Kings Point taking on Pennsylvania Military College, played many a year inside the cavernous Atlantic City Convention Hall.

     My desire for continuity extends to two FCS conferences--the Ivy League and the Patriot League. The Ivies had the usual contests this week--Princeton-Yale, Columbia-Cornell of course. Next weekend, the final weekend of the Ivy League season, Harvard and Yale renew their football hatred, while Dartmouth plays Princeton, Cornell and Penn go at it (they used to play on Thanksgiving Day years ago) and Columbia and Brown meet. So orderly and uniform. At least the Patriot League holds sacred the Lafayette-Lehigh match up--the series with the most games played between 2 schools.

     When we look to the powerhouses, I was glad to see that the Southeastern Conference has some deference to history. Yesterday, Alabama and Mississippi State met in the Route 82 Rivalry, referring to the U.S. highway between Tuscaloosa and Starkville. Also, Auburn and Georgia clashed once more, in the oldest Deep South match, originating in 1892. Nice symmetry. Vanderbilt and Tennessee still have to play, but Kentucky and Tennessee used to play after that game; this year they played on October 28th. However, before the doubters asked what happened to rivalries for Kentucky, excusably they meet in state arch rival Louisville to end the season. Florida and Florida State go at it to end the season, just like  Clemson and South Carolina and Georgia and Georgia Tech, in 3 ACC-SEC affairs. Texas A&M and LSU end the season together and Missouri plays Arkansas in 2 new rivalries necessitated  by conference realignment. A&M and Texas were bitter enemies ending the season; Missouri and Kansas had their Border War; Tulane and LSU kept it in-state. Moreover, Clemson is playing The Citadel this week--limiting the non-conference match to an in state opponent, just as South Carolina has Wofford on the schedule. I am glossing over Mississippi-Mississippi State and Alabama-Auburn season-ending wars, the Mississippi battle for the the Golden Egg Trophy in the Egg Bowl and the Crimson Tide and Tigers hook up in the Iron Bowl. The Deep South has kinda got it right.

     A limited but fierce rivalry was reignited yesterday in Hard Rock Stadium when Catholics (Notre Dame) played the Convicts (University of Miami). The hatred goes back to the 1980's and it is probably a good thing that they do not play each other every year. I am certain that Miami relished knocking the Irish from the BCS playoff picture while remaining undefeated. The 'Canes embellished their outlaw past with this win over pious and mighty Fighting Irish.

     With the Big 10, adding new schools somewhat complicated the picture. Michigan and Ohio State is sacred to end the season. Wisconsin and Minnesota go after Paul Bunyan's Axe, a fixture since 1948 and which thankfully replaced the Slab of Bacon last seen in 1943. Iowa and Nebraska have become a last game staple. Penn State and Maryland have a long history, which makes their meeting the right thing, although I miss Maryland-Virginia. Illinois-Northwestern and Purdue-Indiana have deep roots. Which leaves that scintillating last game--Rutgers and Michigan State. Oh well. Maybe that will morph into a heated match on a cold November day. (Rutgers-Princeton to start the season and Colgate-Rutgers to conclude the year was a fixture in my youth, which ended when RU went big time)

     Oklahoma and Oklahoma State used to be the last game. Right after Nebraska and Oklahoma played. The latter do not play any more and the Oklahoma schools met last weekend. Texas-Texas Tech is not a suitable substitute for Texas-Texas-A&M. Thankfully, there is Baylor-TCU, but TCU used to play SMU and Rice played Baylor and Texas Tech and Arkansas to cap off the final weekend of the old Southwest Conference.

     The PAC 12 has kept the end battles as they have been for years. Washington plays Washington State in the Apple Cup; Oregon and Oregon State have their Civil War; Stanford and Cal play The Game; Arizona and Arizona State took their rivalry into the conference. USC and UCLA end the year; it used to be at the Memorial Coliseum until UCLA moved to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl for its home games. Newbies Colorado and Utah meet in their finale.

     A postscript to this West Coat tradition is the alternate year trip that Notre Dame takes to Los Angeles to play USC to close out the regular season. Thee are a few stories that make the rounds as to how this series originated. One is that the wives of USC Athletic Director Gwynn Wilson and legendary Irish coach Knute Rockne,  in an attempt to get more Midwestern and Eastern schools on the Trojans' schedule, had a conversation about the 2 schools playing when the Wilsons journeyed to Lincoln, Nebraska where Notre Dame had lost to the Nebraska Cornhuskers on a cold Thanksgiving Day. The two ladies thought it would be a splendid idea to come every other year and bask in the warmer November sun of Southern California. The noted Indiana University sports historian, Murray Sperber (no relation) cites to the lucrative aspects of such a series with its large payouts (the Rose Bowl Committee had been courting Notre Dame because of its success under Rockne and, in fact, Notre Dame met Stanford in the 1925 Rose Bowl--in spite of Stanford and Cal's initial reluctance to play an inferior academic Catholic school,  and Notre Dame's ban from scheduling Western Conference schools or going to bowl games. The ties between Rockne and former Iowa coach Howard Jones, then at USC,  and the interest of the alumni also cemented this annual meeting. Through this October's contest in South Bend, Indiana, Notre Dame leads the series 47-37, with 5 ties. Notre Dame has possession of the Jeweled Shillelagh, emblematic of this contest, by virtue of its home win this October.

     The Atlantic Coast Conference has butchered rivalries the most as a result of Maryland's defection to the Big 10 and the addition of Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Miami and Louisville. We know Louisville plays Kentucky; Miami and Pitt now meet annually to end the season, as does BC and Syracuse. Besides Florida State-Florida, Clemson-South Carolina and Georgia-Georgia Tech, North Carolina is no longer playing Duke as the final game, eschewing the 10 mile distance between them; State is paired up with the Tar Heels while the Blue Devils take on Wake Forest, NC State's former partner. State and Carolina formerly met mid-season. Virginia and Virginia Tech now meet in their finale; Tech used to play V.M.I. through 1984, with Tech chalking up a sizable lead in the series. The best  V.M.I. can do is its mid year tussle with The Citadel in the Military Classic of the South, with the Silver Shako Trophy at stake. And talking about former finales, Boston College and Holy Cross used to meet; they battled over 80 times through 1986.

     These healthy end of the season rivalries persist in large extent as demanded by alumni and television. They should remain intact as much as possible. Some series are squeezed in during the middle of the season--Miami (Ohio) and Cincinnati play for the Victory Bell. Through 1986, the game concluded the season, but now it is an early season fixture. V.M.I. will meet Virginia Tech again soon, simply not to end the season.

     Change is inevitable and unfortunately, some great traditions had to be swallowed up, only to have instituted new season-ending contests which someday may have their own histories. There is enough there for the college football fan, starting in November, to rely upon, whether it be at the FBS, FCS or Division III levels.

     I think about what if the National Football League had smartly recognized that intra division rivalries to end the season would be most alluring. Imagine the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants? Dallas and Washington? New York Jets-Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots? Cincinnati-Cleveland? Rams-49'ers? Green Bay-Minnesota and Chicago-Detroit? San Diego-Oakland? Kansas City-Denver? People would actually be in the stadiums for that last game, even if it was meaningless as to the playoffs and it was colder than heck. Just saying...

     At least Highland Park and Metuchen will play again on Thanksgiving Day. Too many high school traditional tilts have been usurped by the playoffs.  A win in a final, rivalry game means so much...to the loyal fans who support their team. The Owls-Bulldogs rivalry was moved to mid-season for a number of years, which didn't sit well with the faithful. Having seen that clash so many times in my youth, is why I am so partial to the traditional final contest against the arch-rival.

     Thus, the ultimate finale--Army against Navy. A game which cannot be usurped by conference affiliations and changes. Tradition. No better way to end any season.

P.S. Nice New England touch with the Fenway Gridiron Series at Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox. Ivy League schools Dartmouth and Brown met on Friday night; the Saturday game involved former Yankee Conference rivals Maine and UMass; and next weekend Boston College plays former Big East and longtime rival, UConn.