Lucas Panzica discusses the top 100 college football rivalries and the five matchups that made the rankings on this list (Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Kentucky Wildcats, and Vanderbilt Commodores)
00:00Well, it is list season, and The Athletic has put out a list of the top 100 rivalries in all of college football.
00:06Multiple Tennessee rivalries made the cut, but there's one that's ranked a little bit lower than it probably should be.
00:11We'll tell you which one next.
00:16Hey, Lucas Panzeca here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports.
00:19So Scott Docterman of The Athletic put together a comprehensive ranking of the 100 best rivalries in all of college football.
00:27Now, his rationale behind these rankings take into account multiple factors.
00:32Things like prominence, history, proximity, frequency, competitiveness of a rivalry.
00:38So there's a lot that went into this, but we'll cut to the chase here.
00:42Tennessee has five rivalries in this top 100.
00:46They are as follows.
00:47The Alabama game, the third Saturday in October for Scott Docterman, is the number 11 rivalry in the country.
00:54The Tennessee-Florida rivalry is at number 36.
00:58The Tennessee-Georgia matchup comes in at 53.
01:01Tennessee versus Kentucky comes in at 75.
01:04And Tennessee versus Vanderbilt comes in at 80.
01:07Now, the only one that I really take issue with here is the Tennessee-Alabama game being outside of the top 10.
01:15The other ones, I don't mind.
01:16I know the Tennessee-Florida rivalry is outside the top 30 in this ranking, but he does clearly state that he takes into account the history between the two programs.
01:26And while Tennessee and Florida was one of the biggest rivalries in all of college football and probably the biggest in the SEC throughout the course of the 90s, and they've had some very competitive matchups, that rivalry didn't really heat up until the early 90s when the SEC brought divisions into play.
01:41And Tennessee and Florida actually started to play each other every year, and it compares to some rivalries that have been playing each other for over a century, including some other rivalries that Tennessee has on this list.
01:53So I don't mind Tennessee-Florida, Tennessee-Georgia being a little bit lower on the list.
01:58But for Tennessee-Alabama, for the third Saturday in October to be ranked 11 is far too low on this ranking, especially when you look at some of the rivalries that are ranked ahead of Tennessee versus Alabama.
02:11Some of those rivalries include Wisconsin versus Minnesota, who play for Paul Bunyan's axe.
02:16That is undeniably a very cool rivalry name, but there's no way that it matches up with the competitiveness and intensity of Tennessee versus Alabama.
02:25Florida-Florida State is ranked ahead of that matchup, Ohio State-Penn State, and maybe the one I take most issue with, Nebraska-Oklahoma.
02:34There is absolutely no way that Nebraska and Oklahoma, who have not been in the same conference in years, can be considered a better rivalry than Tennessee-Alabama.
02:44And look, I understand that there was a long stretch where Alabama completely dominated this rivalry.
02:52About 15 years there, where Tennessee lost consecutively to Bama.
02:57This has been a streaky rivalry over the years.
02:59Tennessee has had its own seven, eight-year win streaks over Alabama, none to the extent of 15 straight.
03:05I absolutely understand that.
03:07But this rivalry is back on even footing, and it has shown us in the last few years, especially those last two games in Knoxville,
03:14why, when this rivalry is at its best, it is absolutely one of the absolute most insane rivalries in the country.
03:22So for me, it is criminal to leave Tennessee-Alabama, the third Saturday in October, outside of the top ten.
03:27But otherwise, I don't really dispute the ranking from Scott Docterman.
03:31Do you think any other Tennessee rivalries should have been ranked higher on this list?
