This week the Girls’s School World Collection brings to heart stage one among school sports activities’ greatest rivalries: the Pink River Rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas.
With Texas ranked No. 1 and Oklahoma ranked No. 2 — and the rivalry’s 4 prior editions this season break up 2-2 with a median margin of victory of two.25 runs — the championship sequence is ready to be a basic. It’ll even be déjà vu for each squads: The Sooners and the Longhorns squared off within the 2022 World Collection, with Oklahoma profitable the title for its second in a run of three straight nationwide championships.
Softball’s 2022 title recreation rematch is one other latest instance of faculty rivals competing on the largest levels. Listed below are another Division I rivalry video games which have seen a number of championship editions since 2000.
Georgia v. Alabama
Sport: Soccer
Years: 2022, 2018
Perennial school soccer powerhouses, two of the previous three SEC championships have featured a showdown between the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide. The rivalry between Alabama and Georgia has additionally appeared on the game’s greatest stage: the School Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championship.
Since its debut in 2014, each version of the School Soccer Playoff however one has featured both the Bulldogs or the Crimson Tide. The SEC powerhouses twice made the playoff collectively, each instances ending up in a matchup in opposition to each other for the nationwide title.
Alabama took the primary of the 2 matchups in 2017-18, due to the second-half heroics of Tua Tagovailoa. Georgia would get revenge 4 years later, driving a 20-point fourth quarter to a 33-18 win in 2021-22.
LSU v. Florida
Sport: Baseball
Years: 2023, 2017
Final spring’s Males’s School World Collection-deciding battle between Florida and LSU was a wild one. The primary recreation was a 4-3 nail-biter that required 11 innings to separate the SEC foes, with the subsequent two video games ending with a mixed margin of victory of 34 runs.
The Tigers roared loudest in Recreation 3, amassing 24 hits in an 18-4 victory. The win capped off LSU’s first championship sequence look for the reason that Gators took the 2017 title with a 2-0 sequence win in opposition to the Tigers.
Wisconsin v. Minnesota
Sport: Girls’s hockey
Years: 2019, 2012, 2006
The Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe is the most-played rivalry within the FBS, however the Midwest showdown could also be much more intense on ice. The Badgers and Gophers have performed 3 times for the nationwide title for the reason that NCAA debuted the ladies’s Frozen 4 in 2001.
Minnesota was the primary of the 2 faculties to assert a title with a 6-2 win over Harvard in 2004, however Wisconsin holds a 2-1 edge in head-to-head nationwide championship recreation clashes — together with a 2-0 win in the latest such showdown in 2019.
Virginia v. Maryland
Sport: Males’s lacrosse
Years: 2021, 2011
Maryland and Virginia might not share a convention like a few of the different rivals on this record, however the cross-DMV feud burns sizzling — particularly in males’s lacrosse the place the 2 faculties have twice met within the nationwide title recreation.
The Cavaliers path of their total sequence in opposition to Maryland — which has been performed a whopping 97 instances — however boast a 2-0 file in nationwide championship video games. The more moderen triumph got here in 2021, when Virginia took down the top-ranked Terrapins due to 4 targets apiece from Matt Moore and Connor Shellenberger.
USC v. UCLA
Sport: Seaside volleyball
Years: 2024, 2023, 2021, 2019
Essentially the most just lately added NCAA championship, the primary seashore volleyball nationwide title recreation got here in 2016. It hasn’t taken lengthy although for crosstown foes UCLA and USC to strike up a extremely aggressive rivalry, with a number of showdowns on the game’s greatest stage.
4 of the final 5 seashore volleyball nationwide championship video games have come right down to the Bruins and Trojans. USC, who final month picked up its fourth consecutive nationwide title, boasts a 3-1 file when the 2 Los Angeles faculties meet within the ultimate.