A college football rivalry for the ages doesn’t always produce a game for the ages.

That’s not the way football works. It’s not the way sports work.

Not every match between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova came down to a deciding 3rd set.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal didn’t always battle into a deciding 5th set.

The Lakers and Celtics have had their share of forgettable games.

So have the Red Sox and Yankees. And the Packers and Bears.

And you get the point.

Sometimes, rivals come together, play a game or match, and it’s as memorable as the breakfast you ate 4 days earlier.

Sometimes, even when it’s LSU vs. Alabama, you get a blowout on the first Saturday in November, one in which there is no doubt about who the better team is that day or that fall.

Here are the 10 biggest blowouts in the history of this grand rivalry.

Note: Because there was a tie for the 10th-biggest blowout, this list actually contains 11 games instead of 10.

Another note: Despite this list being very Bama-heavy, LSU does have 11 double-digit victories in the series.

1. Nov. 10, 1922 — Alabama 47, LSU 3

Almost exactly 100 years ago, on a Friday, the Crimson Tide crushed the Tigers on homecoming before what was then the largest crowd in the history of Denny Field.

Bama showed absolutely no letdown against its SEC rival, just 6 days after upsetting a Penn team coached by John Heisman (yeah, that Heisman) at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, a win that was later recognized as 1 of the most significant in the history of Alabama football.

Ho hum.

The Tide returned to Tuscaloosa and put a beating on the Tigers that, 100 years later, is still the most lopsided in the history of the rivalry. After a scoreless 1st quarter, Bama got rolling in the 2nd with 27 points and never looked back behind star halfback/quarterback Charles Bartlett.

The Crimson Tide finished that season 6-3-1 overall and 3-2-1 in the Southern Conference, and they played that day against LSU and that whole season with heavy hearts. That’s because Bama head coach Xen C. Scott coached that season while dying of oral cancer, barely able to speak and coaching despite the advice of a doctor who warned him to quit right away. Scott was bedridden except for when he was running practices and games, and he was mighty proud of his crimson and white troops on the day they took down the Tigers in historical fashion.

Scott passed away in 1924.

2. Oct. 10, 1925 — Alabama 42, LSU 0

The Crimson Tide had their first perfect season in program history under 3rd-year head coach Wallace Wade, going 10-0 overall, 7-0 in the Southern Conference and being retroactively named the national champion by some major selectors. Within the confines of a magical year came 1 magical October day against the Tigers when Bama could do no wrong.

In fact, Bama’s rout of LSU in Baton Rouge was described by some as “perfection itself,” and you never would’ve known it was the Tide’s 1st road and conference game of the season. The brightest star of the show for the Tide on a day of stars was fullback/quarterback Pooley Hubert, who scored 4 touchdowns, including the final TD in the 4th quarter that put the finishing touches on a masterpiece of a victory.

There were roughly 8,000 fans that day at Tiger Stadium, and if any of them were alive today (which is doubtful) it’s likely that none of them would step forward and admit to seeing the hated Tide walk all over the Tigers.

3. Dec. 5, 2020 — Alabama 55, LSU 17

Nearly a century after crushing LSU on the way to a national championship, the Crimson Tide did it again in the bizarro world year of 2020. This was the season that was shortened because of the COVID-19 pandemic to 10 regular-season SEC games, when the Tide didn’t play their first game until late September and when the annual early November LSU tussle was pushed back to early December.

So it was on Dec. 5, not, say, Nov. 5, when Bama traveled to Baton Rouge and put a licking on the defending national champion Tigers. Tide quarterback Mac Jones was electric that night, throwing for 385 yards and 4 touchdowns, and wide receiver DeVonta Smith was equally unbelievable with 8 catches for 231 yards and 3 scores.

A little over a month later, Bama was the national champion yet again, winning Nick Saban’s 6th crown in Tuscaloosa and 7th overall. LSU would suffer through a 5-5 clunker of a campaign after its magical title run in 2019.

4. Nov. 15, 1930 — Alabama 33, LSU 0

We zig-zag back and forth in our little time machine and travel back 90 years, only to find the same wonderful formula for Bama (and not so wonderful for LSU) — that is, the Tide stomp all over the Tigers on their way to a national championship.

In the only game that season played at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama got touchdowns from 5 different players, including an 80-yard kickoff return by John Campbell. By halftime, it was 27-0 and the Crimson Tide were well on their way to improving to 8-0.

Bama put the finishing touches on a 10-0 season and a national title with a Rose Bowl win over Washington State that sent Wade out on top. Earlier that year, Wade announced he was resigning at the end of the 1930 season to take the coaching position at Duke.

5. Nov. 16, 2002 — Alabama 31, LSU 0

In what was probably one of the crowning moments of the brief Dennis Franchione Era, the 10th-ranked Crimson Tide walked into Tiger Stadium and smothered the 14th-ranked Tigers — at night, no less.

Running back Shaud Williams (remember him, Tide fans?) controlled things on the ground that night with 16 carries for 131 yards, and the ferocious Bama defense held LSU quarterback Marcus Randall to 39 yards passing. It was a dominant defensive performance by the Tide, who held the Tigers to just under 200 total yards.

Bama went 10-3 that season and won the SEC West with a 6-2 mark, but it was ineligible to play in the SEC Championship Game (or a bowl game, for that matter) because of a 2-year postseason ban that was part of a penalty for NCAA violations.

A few weeks later, Franchione left Tuscaloosa to take the Texas A&M job, and Bama was looking for a head coach again.

6. Nov. 9, 1974 — Alabama 30, LSU 0

The 3rd-ranked Tide steamrolled the Tigers at Legion Field in Birmingham to lock up a share of the conference title and a spot in the Orange Bowl. Bama led 23-0 by halftime and was cruising, thanks in part to quarterback Richard Todd’s 3-run touchdown run in the 2nd quarter.

It was Alabama’s 3rd shutout of the season, following earlier shutouts of Southern Mississippi and Mississippi State. Bear Bryant’s latest powerhouse team got by Auburn in the Iron Bowl a few weeks later but couldn’t seal the deal in the Orange Bowl, losing to Notre Dame to fall short of another national championship.

The Tide had to settle for 11-1 instead of 12-0, but they did secure yet another feather in their cap during their decade-long dominance of LSU.

T7. Nov. 3, 2018 — Alabama 29, LSU 0

The top-ranked Tide didn’t win another national title this time after yet another pounding of the Tigers, again in Baton Rouge and again at night. Bama fell hard to Clemson in the national championship game. But the Tide sent yet another November message all night long to an LSU team that came in ranked 4th. This was a No. 1 vs. No. 4 showdown, and it turned out to be nothing but a cakewalk for Bama.

Damien Harris rushed for over 100 yards, and the Bama defense held a quarterback named Joe Burrow to 184 yards passing and 1 interception. This wasn’t 2019 Burrow. It was 2018, and Alabama held LSU to 13 1st downs and 196 total yards while piling up 576 total yards. Bama ran for 281 yards that night and allowed all of 12 rushing yards.

This was total domination, and it was getting old already for LSU, which suffered its 8th straight loss in the rivalry that night.

T7. Nov. 22, 1947 — Alabama 41, LSU 12

Bama lost 2 games early that season to Tulane and Vanderbilt, so it didn’t have its eyes on the biggest prize when the Tigers visited Denny Stadium that day. But that didn’t mean the 8th-ranked Tide didn’t have designs on punishing their rival from start to finish.

Alabama came out possessed, taking a 21-0 lead after 1 quarter, and it was all over but the chanting and (we’re guessing) taunting. It was homecoming in Tuscaloosa, after all, and it was the conference finale. After the victory, the Crimson Tide accepted an invite to play in the Sugar Bowl, where it would be soundly beaten by Texas.

Still, it was a solid first season as head coach for Harold Drew, who went 8-3 and drew first blood in the rivalry with LSU.

9. Sept. 28, 1957 — LSU 28, Alabama 0

Finally, we have the Tigers getting a little (or lot of) glory back on their rival in one of those rare September meetings that became commonplace in this rivalry in the 1950s.

Instead of punishing the Tide in early November, the Tigers did the deed in late September, in their 2nd game of the season (I know, weird), in an otherwise nondescript season in which they went 5-5 overall and 4-4 in the SEC. Jim Taylor and Billy Cannon had big days in the LSU blowout of Bama.

For Bama, it was the season opener and a rude awakening at that. The Tide were terrible that season, going 2-7-1 overall and 1-6-1 in the SEC, and by late October university officials had already announced that the contract of head coach Jennings Whitworth would be not renewed when it expired at season’s end.

And on Dec. 3 of that year, a former Alabama player named Bear Bryant, who had coached at Maryland, Kentucky and Texas A&M, was hired as head coach and athletics director at Bama. So you could say that even in a year when the Tide got their tails handed to them by LSU, they still managed to do pretty well.

T10. Nov. 8, 1997 — LSU 27, Alabama 0

A 14th-ranked Tigers team went into Bryant-Denny Stadium and took no prisoners against an unranked Alabama team. The Tide were careening toward a 4-7 season and a last-place finish in the SEC West, while LSU was ascending toward a 9-3 season and a co-1st-place finish in the SEC West.

This LSU team would go on to pound Notre Dame down the road in Shreveport in the Independence Bowl, but before it smacked around the Irish, the Tigers did a lot of damage to the Tide in early November in Tuscaloosa.

The Tigers still only led 14-0 going into the 4th quarter, but they sealed the deal in the final period by adding 13 points to hand Alabama its 1st shutout loss since 1991. LSU also got some sweet payback after Bama had blanked the Tigers 26-0 the year before in Baton Rouge.

T10. Nov. 16, 1923 — Alabama 30, LSU 3

We go way back to the beginnings of this grand rivalry for the last entrant on our list. On Nov. 6, 1922, a mere 4 days before he somehow coached Alabama to the biggest blowout win in this series that topped our list, Scott announced his resignation because of his deteriorating health.

A little over a month later, Wade was hired, and a new era of Alabama football was born. And the following fall, Wade made a wonderful 1st impression in the Bama-LSU rivalry by leading the Crimson Tide to a dominating win on a Friday night in Montgomery. The blowout of the Tigers was part of a 7-2-1 campaign that launched the Wade Era in Tuscaloosa.

Meanwhile, the Tigers were going nowhere in a 3-5-1 season. They actually scored 1st that forgettable night in Montgomery, kicking a field goal before the Tide’s onslaught began.

It was a long night for the Tigers and probably an even longer trip home to Baton Rouge. But that’s the nature of this rivalry, or any rivalry, when the games aren’t close. You take your beating, shake hands, lick your wounds and live to fight the following year.

For LSU, which has lost 10 of the past 11 meetings with Bama, that year is this year and that night is Saturday night at Death Valley, where the inside track to the SEC West title will be on the line.

Who knows, it might be a blowout like the ones on this list, but we’re seriously doubting it.