2014 College Football Pool – Week 13 Results

I love college football rivalry games. There is nothing in the world quite like them. Oh, there are rivals in other sports, but they generally play each other multiple times in a year. In college football, if you don’t beat your rival, you have to wait a full year to get another chance. The history behind each series is unique. And no other sport has the eclectic set of trophies that are contested; everything from buckets to “eggs” to wagon wheels are on the line. As we draw close to the end of the regular season, let’s take a look at three of these storied series.

Minnesota and Wisconsin have played each other 123 times in football, the most times a major college rivalry game has been played. The Gophers and Badgers have met every year but one since 1890 (1906, when Teddy Roosevelt suspended football games due to safety concerns; yes, politics and college sports mixed even then). Paul Bunyan’s Axe is the trophy for this game. A six-foot tall chopper worthy of the mythical woodsman, it is painted red on one side and gold on the other, and has been given to the winner annually since 1948. However, this year even more is at stake. Minnesota and Wisconsin play for the Big Ten West title, the first time a championship is at stake for the winner since 1962. Minnesota leads the overall series 59-56-8, and has never trailed in the series in the long history of the game, but Wisconsin currently holds a ten-game winning streak.

Georgia and Georgia Tech have what is perhaps one of the most interesting names for their rivalry: “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate”. The Bullldogs and Yellow Jackets have met 106 times, with the current record standing in Georgia’s favor, 64-37-5 – if you’re a Georgia fan. If you root for the Yellow Jackets, you also count two wins in 1943 and 1944 that Georgia disputes by saying that their teams were unofficial those years due to World War II. Georgia Tech owns the longest streak in the series, having won eight straight between 1949 and 1956, but Georgia is on a current five-game streak. The winner of the game receives the Governor’s Cup. The dislike between the two teams even extends to school colors – at one time, Georgia’s school colors included old gold, but they removed it after their first meeting with Georgia Tech in 1893!

In 1899, the University of Arizona played the Normal School of Arizona (which would eventually become Arizona State University) in football for the first time. The winner of this game (Arizona State) was awarded the Territorial Cup as overall champion of a series of games between the two schools and two other teams. After the tournament, the cup was lost until 1980, when it was found in a church close to the ASU campus. It was verified by the NCAA as the trophy awarded in 1899, giving it the distinction of the oldest college football rivalry trophy. The 2001 season marked the first year since 1899 that it was used as the traveling trophy for the game. Before then, the schools played for other trophies, including the Saguaro Trophy, which now has its own somewhat unique distinction; the winning coach has kept this trophy in his office since the 1997 game. The two teams have played each other 87 times, with Arizona holding a 47-39-1 edge.

In small-school news, the I-AA playoff bracket is now out. As in the Division II bracket, there are 24 teams, with the top eight receiving first-round byes. Much like the NCAA basketball tournament, conference champions receive automatic bids to the tournament, with the rest filled in with at-large selections. There are 13 conferences, but the Ivy and the SWAC generally tend to decline their automatic bids, so there are 11 conference champions in the field. The Division II and III playoffs are underway, with second-round matchups this weekend. I didn’t realize this until doing my research, but the Division III tournament is now up to 32 teams! There are 244 Division III football teams, meaning roughly one in every eight schools makes the playoffs. If that were the case in I-A, there would be a 16-team playoff. Will it eventually happen?

Congratulations to Liquid Heat, who wins week 13 with 223 points! Coming in second was TheAUone with 222, and JG Bama was third with 217.

Overall standings after 13 weeks:

Rivalry week is traditionally one of the most difficult weeks to pick, and this week has 20 big games! The first game is TCU at Texas, Thursday, November 27 @ 7:30 ET, so make sure to get your picks in by then!