Forde-Yard Dash: Lopsided College Football Rivalries Dot Landscape

From Ohio State-Michigan to the Holy War, one team is up while the other is down—making the duels fairly one-sided.

Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer, left, celebrates with teammates. / Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college football, where fan tantrums over the officiating have got to go. First Quarter: Eight-Way SEC Tie Scenario. 

Second Quarter: Our Rivalries Are Out of Whack

Results from last week confirm what we have suspected for a while—our country has shifted. One side has taken hold. Our system of checks and balances is now unchecked and unbalanced.

I’m talking, of course, about our college football rivalries.

Everywhere you look, they’re one-sided. One team is up, while its rival is down. The schadenfreude has gotten lopsided. The bragging rights are only going one way. Check the list:

Ohio State-Michigan (12)

Who is up: The Buckeyes are 8–1 and ranked No. 2 in the nation. Who is down: The Wolverines are 5–5 and one of the great offensive dumpster fires of 2024. What’s changed: Michigan mortgaged everything to win the 2023 national championship, with Jim Harbaugh and a boatload of talent leaving thereafter. Ohio State doubled down on its player investment in response, spending millions to retain stars and add new ones.

Bereft of a quality quarterback, Michigan bottomed out offensively against the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday. Its 206 yards of total offense were the lowest for the program in a game since 2016, and its 3.26 yards per play were the lowest since ’13. Indiana is good—yes, really, believe it—but Michigan should never be this inept. Sherrone Moore needs to prove in ’25 that he hasn’t set the program back to the Brady Hoke/Rich Rodriguez era.

Rivalry game: Nov. 30 in Columbus. And the respective records of the two teams will do nothing to lessen the pregame pucker of the Buckeyes. After three straight losses to the Wolverines, that will be the biggest must-win game of Ryan Day’s career.

The Egg Bowl (13)

Who is up: The Mississippi Rebels are 8–2 and ranked No. 10, coming off a thorough beating of Georgia that puts a new luster on the Lane Kiffin era and enhances the Rebels’ College Football Playoff hopes. Who is down: The Mississippi State Bulldogs are 2–8 and have lost 10 straight Southeastern Conference games. What’s changed: The dynamic is similar to last season, except Ole Miss is a little bit better and Mississippi State is even worse.

The Rebels are operating on a completely different plane from their ancient rival at the moment. Even their squirrels are quicker and more elusive than the Bulldogs players. State is in its second straight season with a new coach (Zach Arnett last year, Jeff Lebby this year), and with all six SEC losses coming by double digits this season, it looks like the rebuild is going to take a while.

Rivalry game: Nov. 28 in Oxford. Could get ugly.

The Iron Bowl (14)

Who is up: The Alabama Crimson Tide, although 7–2 doesn’t truly qualify as “up” for the Tide. But beating the LSU Tigers to a pulp Saturday has Bama backers feeling better. Who is down: The Auburn Tigers are 3–6, just 1–5 in the SEC. What’s changed: Auburn has gone from mediocre to bad. In direct refutation of the boosters’ delusional image of the program’s standing, the Tigers are now 26–32 over the last five seasons.

Hiring Hugh Freeze was the deal with a devil that was supposed to change everything. Instead, a fourth straight season of seven or more losses seems inevitable. Auburn is an error-prone mess—last by a long way in the SEC in turnover margin (minus-10) and tied for 127th nationally. 

Rivalry game: Nov. 30 in Tuscaloosa. Freeze has been tough on the Tide in the past, upsetting Nick Saban twice while he was at Ole Miss and coming within a fourth-and-31 conversion of taking them down last year. Records aside, Kalen DeBoer better be ready.

Miami-Florida State (15)

Who is up: The Miami Hurricanes, although that status took a hit Saturday with an upset loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets that jeopardizes their playoff hopes. Still, at 9–1, this is Miami’s best season since 2017 at least, and could end up as its best in more than 20 years. Who is down: The Florida State Seminoles are the biggest train wreck in America. What’s changed: Miami has gotten its act together in Year 3 under Mario Cristobal, largely via big transfer portal additions. Florida State has simply fallen apart, a full-system failure.

The FSU accountability process began Sunday with head coach Mike Norvell firing three assistant coaches, including both coordinators. From 13–0 and snubbed for the playoff to 1–9 and embarrassing the league they’re trying to ditch, it has been a humbling fall for the Seminoles.

Rivalry game: Miami already put it on the Noles, 36–14, in October.

The Holy War (16)

Who is up: The BYU Cougars are 9–0 and ranked No. 7, their highest ranking in 15 years. Who is down: The Utah Utes are 4–5 and on a five-game losing streak. What’s changed: BYU has caught a heater, with a massive year-over-year improvement after a 5–7 debut season in the Big 12. Utah has lost its way offensively, dealing with injuries and inefficiencies and pushing out its offensive coordinator. 

BYU looked like they were dead multiple times, but they somehow find a way to keep their undefeated season alive!

If you stayed up until after 2AM EST, you got to see one of the craziest football games you will ever see. Utah fans will have nightmares.pic.twitter.com/s5alVcsdhf

— Chatterbox Sports (@CBoxSports) November 10, 2024

BYU is giving off TCU 2022 vibes, finding ways to win the close ones (the Cougars are 4–0 in one-score games). Utah, meanwhile, could be headed for its first losing season since ’13.

Rivalry game: BYU 22, Utah 21 on Saturday. This one encapsulated both teams’ seasons. The Cougars were lucky and good, staying alive late in the game thanks to a questionable holding call on the Utes—but then taking advantage of the second chance by driving for the winning field goal. Utah was unlucky and bad, failing to get a stop after the tough flag.

(Utah athletic director Mark Harlan’s postgame rant, ripping the Big 12 officiating, earned him a $40,000 fine from the league and prompted an apology from Harlan. His blasting of the refs was way over the top—he said the game was “stolen” and declared himself “disgusted” with the officials, among other things. That’s the kind of overreaction that empowers fans to throw garbage on the field when they don’t like a call. Don’t be part of the problem.)

The Old Oaken Bucket (17)

Who is up: The Indiana Hoosiers are 10–0 for the first time ever, and ranked No. 5. Who is down: The Purdue Boilermakers are 1–8 overall, 0–6 in the Big Ten and winless against FBS competition. What’s changed: Curt Cignetti happened. The new coach of the Hoosiers has turned everything upside down at a perennial football lightweight. Meanwhile, Purdue has slipped from bad (4–8 in Ryan Walters’s first season) to something significantly worse.

Rivalry game: Oct. 30 in Bloomington. Purdue has won three straight in the rivalry. Odds are telescopically long for a fourth.

Red River (18) 

Who is up: The Texas Longhorns, 8–1 and ranked No. 3, in the title chase in their first SEC season. Who is down: The Oklahoma Sooners, 5–5 and 1–5 in the SEC. What’s changed: The Horns have continued their ascent in Year 4 under Steve Sarkisian, making the playoff last year and looming as a potential national title contender this year. The Sooners have flailed in the SEC transition, backpedaling from 10–3 last year.

Oklahoma’s offensive issues are glaring, starting with its error-prone quarterbacks. Jackson Arnold lost two more fumbles Saturday at Missouri, the latter one serving up the winning, scoop-and-score touchdown in the final minute. He’s now lost five fumbles this season. Backup Michael Hawkins Jr. had four turnovers in a span of four quarters against Texas and South Carolina and hasn’t played much since.

Rivalry game: Texas 34, Oklahoma 3, in October. That game solidified how this season was going to go for the Sooners.

The Civil War and the Apple Cup (19)

Who is up: The Oregon Ducks in the former rivalry, and the Washington State Cougars in the latter. Who is down: The Oregon State Beavers and the Washington Huskies. What’s changed: Conference affiliation, coaches, etc.

The Pacific Northwest rivalries were rocked by the defections of Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten. The Ducks, undefeated and ranked No. 1, are thriving in their new locale, while the Beavers (4–5) are treading water in the zombie Pac-12. The dynamic is flipped to their north, where the Cougars are a feisty 8–1 and on the fringe of playoff contention, while the Huskies are 5–5 overall and winless on the road in the Big Ten.

Rivalry games: Oregon trounced Oregon State and Washington State upended Washington in September.

Notre Dame vs. Brian Kelly (20)

Who is up: The Fighting Irish are 8–1 and blowing people out, with an inside track toward the playoff if they keep winning. Who is down: Former coach Kelly is on the outside of the playoff looking in with the LSU Tigers after being smashed at home by Alabama. What’s changed: Kelly couldn’t fully capitalize on having Heisman Trophy quarterback Jayden Daniels his first two years at LSU, and Year 3 has been a regression at that position coupled with similar defensive issues. His successor at Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman, suffered his annual terrible loss in early September but has regrouped.

NOT ONE, NOT TWO, NOT THREE BUT FOUR RUSHING TDS FOR JALEN MILROE 😱

ABSOLUTELY TERRORIZING THE LSU DEFENSE 😳 pic.twitter.com/XuXOsCkLLC

— ESPN (@espn) November 10, 2024

Kelly left Notre Dame to chase a national championship. Right now, he’s farther away than the school he jilted.

A couple of spots where both sides are happy (21): Texas-Texas A&M and Army-Navy. The renewed rivalry between the Longhorns (8–1, 4–1) and Aggies (7–2, 5–1) could well feature a winner-goes-to-Atlanta showdown on Nov. 30. Meanwhile, the undefeated Black Knights and 7–2 Midshipmen could play consecutive weeks in December—the first for the American Athletic Conference title and a potential playoff berth, then their annual neutral-site game.

A few where nobody is happy (22): Bedlam, RIP. And Oklahoma vs. Lincoln Riley. Fans of the Oklahoma State Cowboys would love to mock the Sooners’ SEC comeuppance, but that’s hard to do when your team is 3–7 and in last place in the Big 12. Same dynamic for Oklahoma fans, whose enjoyment of former coach Lincoln Riley’s flop Big Ten debut with USC is tempered by their own sorry state.