The landscape of school football has changed dramatically.
Power Five meetings are well reduced to four. After more than a hundred years, Pac-12 has seen 10 groups fly, adding flagship schools in Cal, Washington and Oregon. The demise of Pac-12 has eclipsed even Texas and Oklahoma, which has abandoned its own conference, the Big XII, to sign up for the SEC starting in 2024.
Each progression has upended long-standing rivalries, but also affirmed them in some ways, as schools rarely leave meetings without at least one rival.
These moves also result in rivalries being almost as powerful as the dollar, as hating your rival is almost as loving your favorite team.
Fortunately, those rivalries will continue in 2024 and beyond. Here are the five most sensible high school football rivalries of the moment, which you can bet on at our favorite high school football sites.
At most, each and every American knows a current or former member of the military. These ties, along with the Army Academies’ unique attacks, make it one of the most attractive games on the sporting calendar.
The Army and Navy used to box with championship caliber equipment, but those days are long gone as other systems have outboxed them. Still, the Black Knights have dominated the series lately, winning six of the last 8 games after the Midshipmen. won the last 14 in a row.
Army came close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the series in 2015, taking a 17-14 halftime lead despite a massive 23-point deficit. But Navy held the Black Knights scoreless in the second half, rallying for a 21-17 victory.
A year later, the Army finally cruised to victory, beating the Midshipmen for the first time since 2001 with a 21-17 victory despite being six points down.
From a betting point of view, Over/Under is the most attractive market for this series. Due to each team’s nonexistent passing plays, the total is usually one of the lowest of the season for any school football game. /Minus was 28. 5 in 2023, with Menos scoring for the 17th time in the last 18 meetings in the Black Knights’ 17-11 victory.
“Go to the Navy, defeat the army”
pic. twitter. com/2hSJ7oPhTf
– NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) December 9, 2023
Tellingly, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban went 12-5 (. 706) against Auburn, well below his Array877 winning percentage over 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa.
Two of Saban’s five losses occurred when the team was the top-ranked team in the country, adding the 2013 “Kick Six” game, where the Tigers’ Chris Davis returned a missed area goal 109 yards for the game-winning touchdown. The Crimson Tide was a 10-point favorite but lost the chance to win a third direct national championship with the loss.
Seven years ago the legend of “Kick Six” was born. pic. twitter. com/7w96kF6KDz
– Sports Center (@SportsCenter) November 30, 2020
While Alabama has won the last 4 games, Auburn has been an underdog in those games, especially at home at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The Crimson Tide are 1-5 compared to the hole with 3 overall losses since 2013. They also needed a double to win there in 2021 and a 4th-and-32 conversion to keep the Tigers going last season.
Saban retired after the 2023 season and was replaced by Kalen DeBoer, ushering in a new era for the series starting in 2024.
Legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes told one of his assistants during a Michigan recruiting that he would push his car, which was running out of gas, to the Ohio line rather than “spend a dime of my money. ” .
This rivalry is simply called “The Game,” which fits perfectly into one of the biggest occasions of the year. We know that a rivalry is serious when one of its eras is called the “Ten Years’ War” (1969-1978). .
After two decades of dominance by the Buckeyes, the Wolverines turned the tide in the 2020s, winning the last 3 matchups. This followed a 17-2 run at Ohio State from 2001 to 2019, where the Buckeyes went 13-6 against the spread.
The most memorable game of that era was not an Ohio State policy, even though the top-ranked Buckeyes beat second-ranked Michigan 42-39 in 2006 en route to the BCS Championship Game.
The top-ranked team has sometimes covered this series, as seven of the last nine games have been double digits. But the Wolverines have had the most memorable wins as underdogs, adding their 24-12 victory over No. 1 Ohio State in 1969 and back-to-back wins over the second-ranked Buckeyes in 1995 and 1996, the last of the which was 17. -no strangers on the route.
The rivalry reached new heights in the Jim Harbaugh era in Michigan. But with Harbaugh returning to the NFL after leading the Wolverines to a national championship in 2023, we’ll see if the rivalry returns in Ohio State’s favor.
Fans flood the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and divide the fan sections right down the middle, creating a beautiful image of this rivalry.
Since 2000, both groups have been seeded 17 times before this game, adding last season when Oklahoma rallied to disappointed Texas (-4. 5) 34-30 at the Texas State Fair. In 2008, it was the top-ranked Sooners who were stunned as favorites. with 6. 5 problems as the Longhorns went on a disappointed 45-35 run.
The groups split their matches in 2018, when they played twice in the same season. Texas, an eight-point underdog in the Red River Shootout, withstood an angry rally to claim a 48-45 victory. But Oklahoma turned things around in the rematch, winning the Big XII championship game 39-27 and becoming a six-point favorite.
The Red River Shootout is aptly named and is the antithesis of the Army and Navy. The winning team scored at least 34 points in 8 of the last games, and there were at least 60 points in total in 8 of the last games. If you like trouble, this game is for you.
Fortunately, this rivalry will continue as the two groups are connected in combination through the SEC, adding a new twist to the storied series.
What makes this rivalry wonderful is the spectacle and historic venues, as UCLA’s games are played at the Rose Bowl and USC’s games are played at the Los Angeles Coliseum. In recent years, the team has donned the home uniform, Powder Blue, for the Bruins. and Cardinal for the Trojans, creating an exceptional image for fans.
USC has had its national championship hopes thwarted by UCLA several times, most notably in 2006. As 10. 5-point underdogs, the Bruins disappointed the second-ranked Trojans 13-9, ending USC’s chances. appearing in a fourth straight BCS Championship Game and securing UCLA’s victory in the series from 1999-2011.
Like most school football rivalries in those days, the game between cities has been governed through offense lately. The winning team has more than 34 problems in 12 of the last thirteen games, making the Over a smart bet for those matchups.
Like Oklahoma and Texas, those groups will sign up for a new convention together, leaving the Pac-12 to the Big Ten in 2024. A spot at the Rose Bowl may not officially be up for grabs when they meet on Nov. 23. However, you can also get a spot in the newly expanded school football playoffs.
Photo via Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
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