Rivalry Week began a week early in the ACC when Cal and Stanford squared off in what they refer to simply as “The Big Game.”

It was the first time the matchup was played as an ACC game.

But it’s hardly a new rivalry.

The Bears’ come-from-behind 24-21 victory on Saturday marked the 132nd meeting between the Bay Area neighbors. And it had all the elements that make rivalries the best part of the college football experience.

The buildup.

The urgency.

The competitiveness.

And the emotion, embodied by Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s tearful postgame interview.
There will be more of the same all around the conference this week as friends become enemies (for a few days at least), houses will be divided and bragging rights for the next year – along with several other important trophies and goals – will be decided.

While all traditional rivalries are fun, they are not created equal.

So as the regular season reaches its climax and we prepare for a passionate weekend full of Clean Old-Fashioned Hate, here is our ranking of the top 10 rivalry games involving ACC programs based on tradition, fan involvement, competitiveness and overall impact:

10. Governor’s Cup: Louisville vs. Kentucky

Officially, the series between the Cardinals and Wildcats began in 1912. But after 6 games, all won by Kentucky and all but shutouts, the football rivalry between the schools went dormant. While their basketball battles have been epic and are the source of great emotion on the part of both fan bases, it took another 70 years before hostilities were renewed on the gridiron in 1974.

One year later, Louisville stopped being the little brother in the relationship by winning for the first time, 13-10. The series has been much more competitive since. But while the Cardinals hold a 15-13 edge over the past 28 meetings, they haven’t beaten their SEC rival since 2017. Last year’s loss in Louisville was especially painful. It was the first of 3 straight defeats that put a bittersweet ending on an otherwise successful 10-win season.

9. Commonwealth Cup: Virginia vs. Virginia Tech

In-state rivalries are always headed because of the cross-pollination of the fan bases. And it’s hard to become fully invested in a rivalry, no matter how heated, when one team always seems to play the role of hammer and the other is the nail. That’s been the case with the Hokies and Cavaliers.

Tech has won 18 of the past 19 meetings and 22 of the past 24 dating back to 1999. The dominance has only been interrupted by UVa victories in 2003 and most recently 2019. There’s hope that the stakes involved in Saturday’s game in Blacksburg will help kick-start the rivalry back to relevance. With both teams coming in at 5-6, the winner will earn bowl eligibility and the loser will stay home.

While most rivalries feature a measure of respect to go along with the desire to beat the daylights out of each other, this one has more of it than most. In 2007, UVa reached out to help Tech get through one of the worst school shootings in history. Then in 2022, the Hokies returned the favor by coming to the Cavaliers’ aid after 3 football players were killed by a classmate while returning back to campus after a field trip.

8. Battle for the Victory Bell: North Carolina vs. Duke

The basketball rivalry between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils remains one of the best if not the best in all of sports. The competition on the football field, however, has lost much of its luster over the past couple of decades. So much so that the ACC moved it out of its traditional Rivalry Week slot on the final week of the regular season and replaced it with UNC’s game against its other Triangle nemesis, NC State.

One tradition that has endured is the battle for the Victory Bell.

It’s a tradition that began in 1948 by cheerleaders from the neighboring schools, which are located only 8 miles from one another. The bell, which was rescued from an old railroad locomotive, is mounted on a cart that used to be spray-painted in the winning team’s preferred shade of blue. That tradition ended, however, when the Tar Heels also spray-painted the visiting locker room and other areas around Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium in 2004, causing thousands of dollars in damage. The Blue Devils earned possession of the bell this season with a thrilling come-from-behind 21-20 victory, ending a 5-game losing streak to its rival.

7. Backyard Brawl: Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia

Nothing triggers emotion faster or more intensely than the culture war that exists between people who live in the big city and those who prefer the slower, less complicated lifestyle of a rural location. That’s the overtone that fuels the hatred between fans of the Panthers and the Mountaineers. The schools are separated by only about 75 miles on Interstate 79. But they’re worlds apart when it comes to the contrast between the communities and values they each represent.

As intense as the rivalry has been over its 129-year history, the series became a casualty of conference realignment in 2011 after Pitt left the Big East to join the ACC, It remained dormant until 2022 when the schools agreed to a 4-game home-and-home resumption. And things have picked up right where they left off, with 2 of the 3 games that have been played thus far decided in the final seconds. Sadly, after next year’s game in Morgantown, the teams won’t meet again until 2029.

6. Clean Old-Fashioned Hate: Georgia Tech vs. Georgia

Although the name didn’t catch on until 1977 when author Bill Cromartie used it as the title for his book chronicling the rivalry’s history, the animosity between the Yellow Jackets and Bulldogs dates back 131 years to their first ever meeting in 1893. Tech beat the Bulldogs 28-6 on that eventful afternoon in Athens. But tensions ran high. The fight song “Ramblin’ Wreck From Georgia Tech” was written in response to accusations that angry UGA fans threw rocks at the Yellow Jackets’ players and threatened them with knives.

These days, most of the barbs launched by fans of the opposing schools are of the verbal variety. But emotions still run just as high. Unfortunately, the war of words has been much more competitive over the past quarter century than the battles between the teams on the field of play. That’s why this rivalry doesn’t rate any higher on this list. UGA leads the all-time series 71-41-5. It’s been even more one-sided since 2001, with the Bulldogs winning 19 times in the past 22 meetings, including 6 straight.

5. North Carolina vs. NC State

The rivalry between the Tar Heels and Wolfpack doesn’t have a catchy name or a trophy to be claimed by the winner each year. But it should. It’s every bit as intense and meaningful to those involved and fans throughout the state as any on this list.

While the schools have been playing since 1894 and have built a healthy dislike for one another during their 113 meetings, the series began to take on a new life in 2007 when Tom O’Brien arrived in Raleigh and began trolling UNC over the scandals of the Butch Davis era while winning 5 straight against the Tar Heels from 2007-11. Recognizing the growing tensions between the rivals, the ACC moved their annual game to the final week of the regular season in 2014.

That same year, current Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren added to the fire, when after breaking a 2-game losing streak to the Tar Heels, he described State as a “blue-collar, work-ethic, hands-in-the-dirt school” – a direct implication that the folks at UNC are soft. Even though the passion for this series has often been one-sided, you don’t hear many chants of “Not our Rival” from Tar Heels fans anymore. Not after the Wolfpack has won 6 of the past 8 times they’ve played, including the past 3.

4. Florida Cup: Miami vs. Florida State

While the annual battle between the Hurricanes and Seminoles remains as intense as ever, the golden era of their rivalry took place between 1986-96, an 11-year stretch that saw at least one of the teams ranked among the top 3 in the nation. Including a 1991 showdown in which they held down the top 2 spots in the national polls.

The rivalry has produced some of the most dramatic games in college football history, many with national championship overtones. Oddly enough, though, its most memorable moments – Wide Right, Wide Left, the missed 2-point conversion that helped catapult to a national championship in 1997 – are of failure rather than triumph.

The importance of the game and the stature of the teams involved is best summed up by the ACC’s decision to slot the teams in opposite divisions when the Hurricanes entered the conference in 2004. The idea was that in addition to playing during the regular season, the teams would add to the league’s stature by meeting in its championship game every year. Though it sounded like a good idea at the time, things haven’t exactly gone as planned. To date, Miami and FSU have yet to meet for the ACC title.

3. The Big Game: Cal vs. Stanford

The rivalry between the Bears and Cardinal will forever be defined by one single play in a game contested 42 years ago. It’s a game that ended with the Stanford band on the field and Cal’s Kevin Moen taking the seventh and final lateral into the end zone for the winning touchdown, But there’s so much more history to The Big Game than, to use the immortal words of Cal play-by-play announcer Joe Starkey, “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football.”

Believe it or not, the first meeting between the schools – which like North Carolina, Duke and NC State are located less than 40 miles apart – was organized by a future President of the United States. Herbert Hoover was a student manager at Stanford and his friend Herbert Lang held the same position at Cal. In 1892, they arranged what was intended to be a friendly game between their respective teams. But it turned into much more, So much more that twice as many people showed up to watch than the 10,000 tickets they had printed.

While the game is paled in national relevance by other traditional rivalries, that hasn’t dampened the passion among the two fans bases, as displayed Saturday by the reaction of Mendoza and Cal’s student section following their team’s fourth straight win in the series.

2. Sunshine State Showdown: Florida State vs. Florida

Saturday’s game in Tallahassee will be something of an anti-climax considering that the Seminoles’ season went up in flames weeks ago while the Gators’ fortunes have only recently taken an upturn. But don’t let that fool you. These fan bases absolutely despise one another. And the players aren’t much better. At last year’s game in Gainesville, the UF Police Department reported that 44 fans were ejected from the stadium with several being arrested for offenses ranging from disorderly conduct to fighting. On the field, a Gators player was sent to the showers early for spitting on a member of the Seminoles.

While the emotions involved are deep, the roots of the rivalry are relatively new. The teams only began playing in 1958, with Florida winning 15 of the first 18 meetings (with one tie). Once Bobby Bowden arrived at FSU in 1976, the rivalry became much more competitive. The Seminoles hold a 26-22-1 advantage over the past 49 renewals. While the outcome of the games often has national significance, as was the case when they met in the Sugar Bowl in ‘95 and ‘97, the biggest impact is on recruiting since both schools usually chase the same players in their talent-rich state.

1. Palmetto Bowl: Clemson vs. South Carolina

The Tigers and Gamecocks play only once every year. But the battle between their fan bases never actually ends. It rages on with just as much intensity for the other 364 days on the calendar – on bumper stickers, at the grocery store, at family gatherings. Virtually everyone in the state has picked a side and because they’re usually wearing something either orange or garnet, there’s little doubt as to where their allegiances lie.

The rival schools first played in 1896 and met for 111 consecutive years until the COVID pandemic interrupted the series in 2020. While Clemson holds a commanding 73-43-4 advantage, the teams have taken turns dominating one another in recent years. South Carolina won 5 straight from 2009-13. The Tigers then answered back with a 7-game winning streak of their own. They’ve split the past 2 meetings, with the road team winning back. Saturday’s game is at Death Valley and could be the most impactful in the history of the series, with the winner putting itself in position for a possible College Football Playoff bid.