It is what makes college sports what it is. The rivalries. The fierce animosity between players and fanbases is due to your allegiance. As far as the college landscape is concerned, there might be no better rivalry than what goes down in the South.
There are few rivalries in sports that compare to the hatred between these two Alabama universities. In the season finale, all eyes are on the Iron Bowl. It doesn’t matter how either school is doing, when Auburn and Alabama meet on the field it is going to be a fight.
Ranking the top rivalry games in all of college sports, one publication has the Iron Bowl as a top-three showdown.
What Brad Crawford Says…
One of the SEC’s most competitive rivalries and the most nasty, Alabama-Auburn’s battle in the Iron Bowl every November shifts the college football world on its axis in a matchup often laced with national championship implications.
Alabama leads the series 48–37–1. Alabama is 8-4 vs. Auburn since 2010 with two of those losses ranking among the most memorable in the rivalry’s rich history — Cam Newton’s 21-point comeback in 2010 (national title season for the Tigers) and the jaw-dropping Kick-Six in 2013.
Auburn kept Alabama away from a College Football Playoff opportunity in 2019 with a thrilling win at Jordan-Hare Stadium, the second straight time then-coach Gus Malzahn had beaten Nick Saban on the Plains. The Tigers nearly did it again last season despite a 6-7 finish.
It is hard to fathom many rivalry games you could put above this one. The showdown that holds the moniker, “The Game” is definitely one of the two. When the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes tangle during rivalry week, you could say the hatred is on par with the Iron Bowl. As far as the No. 2 game on this list you have to travel to North Carolina with the Tar Heels-Blue Devils showdown on the hardwood.
All three have an argument to be made for the No. 1 spot. Although, people in the South will tell you it is the Iron Bowl hands down. Even fans of other schools want to tune in because you never know what could happen when it is “War Eagle” vs “Roll Tide” in November.