Many of you are probably like me and feel fall is the best of the seasons. With fall, the heat starts to break with cooler temperatures. The fall foliage is amazing, especially where I grew up in Virginia. We get to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving, but mostly of all we get football.I love college football; not just the game but the entire culture surrounding it. I was fortunate enough to earn my masters at Virginia Tech during its height with Michael Vick, and because my wife worked for the Core of Cadets, we had 50-yard line tickets. Then while earning my doctorate I was able to call the hogs along with 70,000 Razorbacks fans. It’s a unique experience.However, recently the sport I love is taking a hit with NIL deals, transfer portals, and conference realignment. One of the hardest parts of the realignment is the breakup of traditional rivalries, which are a fundamental part of the game and bring together entire communities and states, even if the unification is in hatred of each other. While many of the rivalries are still intact, Michigan v. Ohio State and Cal v. Stanford and others are coming back together BYU v. Utah, many others are being split up and will potentially strip away an important part of the game. While most rivalries are just sports related, historically speaking, there are some – and one in particular – that goes beyond sports.Some of the hardest breaks are going to be the interstate rivalries. Here in Oklahoma the Oklahoma v. Oklahoma State Bedlam game goes way beyond the field. All the K-12 schools join in the rivalry with canned goods or blood drives. It’s a game that builds all week with trash talking followed by a year of bragging rights. With OU now leaving for the SEC in a money grab, I predict the state will suffer.Now we are being told the yearly Red River Rivalry between OU and Texas will end as the SEC is doing away with divisions and so the match will not be a yearly event. I’m not sure, but that could also possibly doom the other SEC rivalries like Alabama v. Auburn. Can you imagine a season without the Iron Bowl or the Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party? I don’t want to. Luckily most of the oldest rivalries are still intact. Yale v. Princeton is the oldest, started in 1873 and ...
