Notre Dame hasn't been a consistant top 10 team for some time now.

 

Anyway, I'm sure everyone realizes that the rivalry in football isn't anywhere near tO$U-Michigan, but the thread is about the combined rivalry of football and basketball. Louisville-Kentucky in football is bigger than tO$U-Michigan in basketball.

 

That is true, but they have been ranked a lot higher than Kentucky, more people watch Notre Dame-USC than they do UK-U of L. Kentucky is 1-6 against Louisville since 2000. There only win came in 2002, a year Louisville was down, they went 7-6. But of the combined sports, then yeah it is up there.

I hope both Football Programs stay in the top 25. UK will be ranked somewhere in the top 30 Pre-season and UL will be top 10. Both of them stay there and this rivalry will be recognized nationwide. Maybe not at the level of OSU-UM, Florida-Florida St., but will be recognized.

Correction on grammar.

Football rivalry is a little lop sided to be anything special right now.

 

Argue that if you like but if not for UK...Bush could have been healthy for the entire season and U of L may have been in the BIG BOWL! UK lost but so did UL...tie?

Argue that if you like but if not for UK...Bush could have been healthy for the entire season and U of L may have been in the BIG BOWL! UK lost but so did UL...tie?

Wow... Just wow! Louisville beat UK there was no tie because Michael Bush got hurt. WOW!

I would say that Texas -vs- A & M would've gotten huge had Billy G stayed in College Station.

Argue that if you like but if not for UK...Bush could have been healthy for the entire season and U of L may have been in the BIG BOWL! UK lost but so did UL...tie?

:creepy:

Argue that if you like but if not for UK...Bush could have been healthy for the entire season and U of L may have been in the BIG BOWL! UK lost but so did UL...tie?

Uh, that's incredible.:fight:

 

Were you giving your buddies high fives when it happened?

Were you giving your buddies high fives when it happened?

 

He probably was...

There are several reasons for rivalries.

1. Some are because of the swing of wins and loses between two teams (ie: Army and Navy).

2. Some are do to a battle for the conference championship by two teams year in and year out (OSU and Mich).

3. Some are do to proximity of the two schools (ie: WVU and VTech).

 

For UK and UL, number 1 is out because UL has won most game in the recent history, number 2 is out because they are in different conferences, but number 3 is the winner the two big universities are a couple of hours a part and the state of Kentucky is split as far as who they cheer for. Most Kentuckians are grouped together by questions such as: are you a democrat of republican, do you like your steak well or rare, and are you a UK fan or a UL fan. The fans make the rivalry not the schools. This is true for football and basketball, most people have co-workers and friends who root for the other side, so they want to be able to say my Wildcats beat your Cards, or my Cards beat your Wildcats. I hear conversations like this all the time. Such things as, you may have beat us in basketball but you will lose in football and vise versa.

 

Nationally, this is still true. UK has basketball fans across the country because of their success. And Petrino said last year that he knew that UL was becoming a national power when he started seeing fans in big cities that he visited, not just Kentucky. So as UL becomes more popular across the country in football and gains fans outside of Kentucky the rivalry will grow nationally.