A few weeks ago I was at the Sacramento SPCA book sale, when I came across a book called Big Games: College Football's Greatest Rivalries, by a guy named Michael Bradley.  It contains entries on what the author deems to be the ten greatest rivalries in all of college football.  I checked the table of contents to make sure that the book included a certain rivalry. It did. (Considering the title, it pretty much had to, right?). So I plunked down my dollar and bought it.  Here are the ten rivalries Mr. Bradley says are the best, in the order he discusses them:

Harvard - Yale

Miami - Florida State

Oklahoma - Texas

Notre Dame - USC (Not Ucla? Don't tell BN)

Georgia - Florida

Lafayette - Lehigh

California - Stanford

Alabama - Auburn

Michigan - Ohio State

Army - Navy

If you are looking at Lafayette - Lehigh and saying, "huh?" (I confess, I did), note that this rivalry game has been played 146 times since 1886, and has been played every year since 1897, making it both the most played rivalry game and the rivalry played uninterrupted for the most years.  And they call their game The Rivalry, which is almost as good a name as The Big Game.

Mr. Bradley doesn't state anywhere what his criteria are for deciding which were the greatest rivalries.  So it made me wonder, what makes a rivalry great?  Are these ten really the best?  And what schools have the second-greatest rivalry in college football?