Cal Football: Stanford-Cal Among the Nation's Most-Played Rivalries

A look at the longest rivalries in college football

Lehigh and Lafayette will play for the 155th time on Saturday for the most-played Division I rivalry, but they are FCS teams.

Williams beat Amherst on Nov. 9 in the 134th edition of that series, but they are Division III schools.

Wisconsin-Minnesota head the list of FBS rivalries an they will meet for the 129th time on Nov. 30.

The Cal-Stanford series is near the top of the list for most played games involving FBS teams. Here are the top 10 most-played FBS rivalries, starting with the number of times the teams have met, with the year of the first game in parentheses, followed by the result or date of their 2019 meeting.

128 – Wisconsin-Minnesota (1890) – Play each other Nov. 30

124 – Miami (Ohio)-Cincinnati (1888) – Cincinnati won this year 35-13

124 – North Carolina-Virginia (1892) – Virginia won this year 38-31

124 – Georgia-Auburn (1892) – Georgia won this year 21-14

122 – Oregon-Oregon State (1894) – Play each other Nov. 30

121 – Cal-Stanford (1892) – Play each other Saturday (today)

121 – Purdue-Indiana (1891) – Play each other Nov. 30

120 – Missouri-Kansas (1891, have not played since 2011)

119 – Army-Navy (1890) – Play each other Dec. 14

118 – Texas-Texas A&M (1894, have not played since 2011)

Yes, Cal and Stanford have played each other more often than Army has played Navy.

Cal-Stanford is the most-played college football rivalry on the West Coast, although nine of the meetings (1906-1914) were actually rugby games.

Yale-Harvard is considered one of the greatest rivalries, especially among nerds, and those two FCS Ivy League schools will face off for the 136th time on Saturday (today). So soon after “The Game” is completed in New Haven, Conn., “The Big Game” will start in Stanford, Calif.