While the average fan on both sides of this rivalry would give up 50 basketball losses for one football win over the other, there’s still no love lost between Texas and Oklahoma on the hardwood. The rivalry has only intensified since the pair found themselves surrounded by unfamiliar foes after making the jump from the Big 12 to the SEC together.
74. Oral Roberts vs. Tulsa
One of the fiercest cross-town rivalries in the sport, Oral Roberts and Tulsa first met back in 1971 and have been playing for the “PSO Mayor’s Cup” since 2012. Tulsa snapped a three-game losing streak to ORU last season and leads the all-time series, 37-22.
73. Bradley vs. Illinois State
The “I-74 Rivalry” is fierce across all sports, but particularly in men’s basketball, where the two programs first met on the hardwood in 1905. Bradley leads the all-time series between the Missouri Valley stalwarts by a count of 76-66.
72. Washington vs. Oregon
Known more as a football rivalry, Oregon and Washington have had a ton of high-level moments against one another in the Pac-12, and will now hope to continue that in the Big Ten. Washington owns the all-time advantage in the border battle by a count of 96-78.
The in-state foes first met on the hardwood in 1918, but the rivalry finds itself in a bit of a weird place with no games between the two since December of 2022. TCU also recently announced that it would be putting a pause on the “Battle for the Iron Skillet” football game between the two following the 2025 season. That wouldn’t seem to portend great things for the future of the basketball rivalry.
70. Western Kentucky vs. Middle Tennessee State
Known as “100 Miles of Hate” because of the proximity of the two schools to one another, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee formed a fierce rivalry during their times together in the Ohio Valley and Sun Belt Conferences, and then reignited it when they linked up in Conference USA in 2013. The Hilltoppers lead the all-time series, 100-49.
Just 60 miles separate these two “Battle of the Border” foes, who first began playing each other back in 1952. The rivalry has intensified over the last couple of years with Will Wade making McNeese the class of the Southland and Lamar existing as their chief competition. With Wade now coaching at NC State, the Cardinals will start the process of trying to exact some overdue revenge in 2025-26.
68. Washington vs. Washington State
One of the longest and most-played rivalries in all of college athletics, Washington and Washington State have met annually since the 1916-17 season, with the Huskies owning an all-time advantage of 186 wins against 111 losses. Bizarrely, the two arch-rivals have never made the NCAA Tournament in the same season.
Another one of the great casualties of conference realignment.
At the turn of the century, it could have been argued that there was no more competitive inter-conference rivalry than Duke vs. Maryland. The pair played some of the most memorable games of the early 2000s, including a showdown at the 2001 Final Four. The Blue Devils won that one, and ultimately the national championship, but the Terps responded by cutting down the nets a year later. The two teams haven’t played since Maryland bolted for the Big Ten in 2014.
This would have undoubtedly been ranked somewhere in the top 50 if this were four years ago, and might have been in the top 25 today had Chris Beard — who left Texas Tech for Texas in 2021 — hadn’t been fired at UT in January of 2023. Now, Texas is a member of the SEC, and both Longhorn and Red Raider fans have significantly conflicted feelings about their former head coach.
65. Wyoming vs. Colorado State
The “Border War” game between these two hated Mountain West rivals dates back to January of 1911 and has been played a total of 243 times. While the Rams are currently the stronger of the two sides, Wyoming still leads the all-time series by a count of 138-105.
One of the West Coast’s premier rivalries, Stanford and Cal first squared off in 1959 and have met at least once in every year since 1993. That isn’t likely to change any time soon with the pair making the move to the ACC together last season. Stanford leads the all-time series, 47-27, with their most recent win coming, oddly, in Charlotte at the ACC Tournament.
Some of the best rivalries in college basketball are the ones that don’t make a ton of rational sense. This is one of those rivalries.
The two schools aren’t located all that close to one another, they’ve only shared the Big East conference together since 2013 and they’ve played just 35 total games against one another, but there is undoubtedly a high degree of disdain at play here. Sometimes having a high degree of ultra competitive contests against one another is reason enough for two fan bases to start hating one another, and that seems to be the case here.
62. Louisville vs. Cincinnati
While both have a more prominent, in-state rival (Kentucky for Louisville and Xavier for Cincinnati), Louisville hasn’t played any opponent more than it has played Cincinnati, and Cincinnati hasn’t played any opponent more than it has played Louisville. U of L and UC joined and competed in five conferences with one another before the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014-15. Their most heated era likely took place in the 1990s, when Bob Huggins’ Bearcats battled with Denny Crum’s Cardinals for league superiority. Having played exactly 100 times (Louisville leads the series, 56-44), the pair will renew their rivalry this season with a Nov. 21 meeting in the Queen City.
Known simply as “The Rivalry” on and around the two Pennsylvania campuses, Lehigh vs. Lafayette is one of the most contentious rivalries in college athletics across all sports. The two teams first played basketball against one another in 1901. Lehigh celebrated its 150th victory in the series last season, and now owns bragging rights by an overall count of 150-98.
60. San Francisco vs. Santa Clara
A lengthy and super competitive series that dates back to 1908, San Francisco claims a 121-118 all-time series advantage over its arch-rival. Santa Clara, for what it’s worth, claims that it owns the all-time series advantage. Both sides can agree that the rivalry hit its peak in the 1950s, when Santa Clara made the Final Four in 1952 and USF won the national championship in 1955 and 1956. The two programs have met annually since being two of the five founding members of the West Coast Conference (originally the California Basketball Association) in 1952.
59. Green Bay vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Known as the “I-43 Rivalry,” Green Bay and Wisconsin-Milwaukee began playing each other in 1971 in what was, at the time, a non-Division-I rivalry. Tensions between the two programs have escalated in recent years, with claims of ineligible player usage (UWM against UWGB), poor pregame practice accommodations (UWM against UWGB), broken university equipment (UWGB against UWM), a pregame scuffle between assistant coaches, and multiple pregame, postgame and mid-game skirmishes amongst players.
The hatred doesn’t run hotter amongst any two other Horizon League foes.
As recently as a couple of years ago, it would have seemed ridiculous to have these two teams on a list like this. That was before Creighton fans made Dan Hurley public enemy No. 1, a role that — naturally — Hurley was more than willing to embrace.
Further amplifying things is the fact that Creighton seems to be the only Big East program that has had UConn’s number in recent years. The Bluejays lead the rapidly burgeoning rivalry by a count of 9-3, and went 2-2 against the Huskies’ 2023 and 2024 national championship teams.
A must-have on any list of the best mid-major rivalries in college basketball. Iona and Manhattan sit just a few miles apart from one another and have historically been the two best programs in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Gaels and Jaspers have combined to make 24 NCAA Tournament appearances, and once met in the MAAC conference tournament championship game in three straight years (2013-15).
They share a border, they’ve both been members of the Big Ten since the end of the 19th century, they both play their home games in buildings named Assembly Hall; Things were just never going to be cordial here. You’ve had allegations of illegal recruiting from both sides directed at the other (Lowell Hamilton in the 1980s and Eric Gordon two decades later), a near brawl between Bob Knight and Lou Henson in 1991, and some extreme tension between Bruce Weber and IU that started before Weber even became the head coach at Illinois.
It might not be the biggest rivalry in the Big 10, but at its peak, there are few that have burned hotter.
This is a simple case of two programs that lost their traditional rival due to conference realignment (Xavier for Dayton and Old Dominion for VCU), and then picked up a new one solely because they kept competing with said team for conference championships. Since VCU joined the Atlantic 10 in 2013, the Rams and Flyers have consistently exchanged blows … most of the time figuratively. The programs are the two biggest draws in the league, and they’ve played phenomenal, meaningful games on an annual basis for over a decade now (VCU leads, 16-10).
54. Villanova vs. Seton Hall
While Villanova has regularly dominated this series and almost always been the superior program overall, Seton Hall has made a habit over the years of knocking off fantastic Wildcat teams at some of the most unexpected moments. That, of course, has delighted Pirate fans and frustrated ‘Nova supporters to no end. SHU needs to regain its footing so that this series can become fun again (and so it can stop slipping down lists like this one).
53. Drake vs. Northern Iowa
This isn’t just arguably the best rivalry in the Missouri Valley Conference, it’s one of the best rivalries in the entire Midwest. Panthers and Bulldogs first played in men’s basketball in 1908, but met just six times before the 1980s. Things really ratcheted up when UNI joined the MVC in 1991. Northern Iowa currently leads the all-time series by a count of 52-36.
As is the case with most of their SEC “rivals,” Kentucky has dominated its all-time series against Florida (111-42). But things have been much more competitive since the turn of the century, with over half of the Gators’ wins against UK (22 of 42) coming since the year 2000. Toss in the fact that Florida has three national championships over that time span to Kentucky’s one, and you’ve got a legitimate back-and-forth.
You know it’s a high-level rivalry when the teams stop playing for over a decade and the conversation about why they aren’t playing is still an annual topic at the national level. Between 1969 and 2012, Kentucky and Indiana met at least once every single season. That all came to a halt following a 2011-12 season where IU stunned the top-ranked Wildcats in the buzzer during the regular season, and then UK downed the Hoosiers in the Sweet 16.
The rationalization for why the series screeched to a halt depends on who you ask. But that’s all in the past now, as the two schools have agreed to a four-game series that will begin this season and continue through the 2028-29 campaign, with both teams playing two games on their home floor. Kentucky will enter the run owning a 32-25 advantage in the series.
