It's all academic

Newsweek somewhat soberly submits its list of the top 12 college rivalries in the country.

Obviously, the rankings are not based solely on what happens on the playing fields. Unless I've vastly underrated the football programs at Cal Tech and MIT, or the field hockey teams at Smith and Wellesley.

That said, just a couple of (not-so serious) complaints: I've always assumed Hampton was a more important rival to Howard than Morehouse and Spelman, and under any circumstance, I can't imagine why anyone outside of the alums would care about Guilford vs. Oberlin and Indiana vs. Purdue.

A few notable rivalries that came to me, just off top: Texas and Texas A&M, a rivalry steeped not only in football but in their tremendous campus lifestyle differences; North Carolina vs. Duke, almost entirely based on hoops and the whole public-private thing; and Grambling vs. Southern, which boasts a more sibling-like animosity than Howard-Hampton in my opinion.

As a note, TCU and SMU isn't a rivalry. SMU would have to win every now and again for us to really care.