The 25 best rivalries in college football

Perhaps the best part of each college football season is the collection of rivalries that feature rabid fans, packed stadiums and hot tempers on the field. Starting toward the end of November, it’s all about the rivalries — with cool trophies and funny names.

Here’s our ranking of the top 25 college football rivalries currently and ones we’d like to see start up again.

A Chicago native, Jeff Mezydlo has professionally written about sports, entertainment and pop culture for parts of four decades. He was an integral member of award-winning sports sections at The Times of Northwest Indiana (Munster, Ind.) and Champaign (Ill.) News-Gazette, where he covered the NFL, PGA, LPGA, NCAA basketball, football and golf, Olympics and high school athletics. Jeff most recently spent 12 years in the editorial department at STATSPerform, where he also oversaw coverage of the English Premier League. A graduate of Northern Illinois University, Jeff’s work has also appeared on such sites at Yahoo!, ESPN, Fox Sports, Sports Illustrated and NBA.com. However, if Jeff could do it again, he’d attend Degrassi Junior High, Ampipe High School and Grand Lakes University