Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly recently made comments that kind of made it seem like he didn’t think the school’s football rivalry with Michigan was as big a deal as some other rivalries the Irish are involved in (one assumes he means USC). ESPN decided this meant that Kelly doesn’t consider Michigan a rival at all, an interpretation that is certainly unrelated to the fact that they have a vested interest in getting eyeballs on this game. Mark May and Skip Bayless each wistfully recalled a childhood full of imaginary Wolverine/Irish battles that never actually happened (and in Bayless’ case, featured at least one player that never suited up for either school).

Personally, I find the game quite enjoyable, even though I generally hate both teams. There are a handful of games like that throughout the country, games that don’t require a major rooting interest to enjoy. Our Buckeyes are part of one, at times called the greatest rivalry in sports (although I doubt many outside the two fanbases still believe that). ESPN is currently conducting a survey on the topic, and The Game does indeed occupy the top spot (at least, as of this writing). I don’t think you’d get many unbiased arguments about the top seven or so on that list, order notwithstanding.

So instead of throwing out another list of what some idiot thinks are the best rivalries, I’m going to actually figure it out, at least in terms of competitiveness. Among the factors under consideration here are winning percentage of each team, recent average margin of victory, total number of games played and national championship relevance.

Here are the Top Five:

1. The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party: Bonus points to Florida and Georgia for not even agreeing on how many games they’ve played. This matchup takes the top spot based on impressive numbers in recent competitiveness: The Gators lead over the past 10 years, but only 6-4. Average margin of victory over that span is just 11 points, despite a couple of Florida blowouts. The two teams have a combined 10 BCS bowl appearances, with 7 wins and 2 national titles.

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Week 1 is nearly in the books with only the matchup between Florida State and Pittsburgh tonight remaining. Jameis Winston, the talented redshirt freshman, will be making his debut as the Seminoles’ starter. Given a supporting cast that includes running backs James Wilder Jr. and Devonta Freeman along with receivers Rashad Greene and Kenny Shaw, Florida State’s offense has to the potential to be very explosive this season. Hopefully, Winston and company will finish off a great first weekend of college football that included several upsets, some Manziel drama, and a few less-than-stellar performances by top teams including #1 Alabama and #2 Ohio State. Sunday’s game between Louisville and Ohio included Teddy Bridgewater playing beautifully, the return of Michael Dyer, and an amazing play by Ohio kick returner Devin Bass in which he shows incredible balance! Watch here!

1. Seven FCS teams beat FBS teams! This is why it doesn’t matter how teams matchup on paper, folks. Anything can happen and it’s that unpredictability that draws us to this game that we love. #25 Oregon State lost to Eastern Washington and Kansas State was brought down by North Dakota State. To be fair, North Dakota State is the two-time defending FCS national champions and Eastern Washington won 11 games last season so it’s not as if these two teams are horrible. Additionally, while KSU was a BCS team last season, it lost a quarterback who was responsible for 68% of its offensive yardage. Southern Utah (who beat South Alabama) and Northern Iowa (who beat Iowa State) each had losing records last season but still had more combined wins (10) than their opponents (8). South Florida (who lost big to McNeese State and UConn (who lost to Towson) but given USF won just three games last season and is in rebuilding mode that wasn’t all that surprising. UConn won just five games last season and we can’t forget that Towson played pretty well against LSU last season. The Eastern Illinois’ 40-19 beat down of San Diego State was the one that was most surprising. San Diego State was a 9-win team last year that beat the likes of Nevada and Boise State, while Eastern Illinois won just seven games and finished its season with a 48-point FCS playoff loss.

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Not a ton of movement in this weeks poll. Not a lot of marquee matchups either. So we will have to stay pretty similar. I think the biggest movement will be in the top 10. Here goes nothing.

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The college football season is finally here! The final BCS season is upon us and we start it off with three televised games Thursday night that include two players that will get some Hiesman hype (JaDaveon Clowney & Marqise Lee), the top recruit from the class of 2013 (Robert Nkemdiche), and the arguably the best receiver in the SEC (Jordan Matthews). We finish the first week of games (a stretch of five straight days of college football) with a game that will highlight the next redshirt freshman phenom in the nation in Jameis Winston of Florida State on Monday night. There are several top-ranked teams playing in games that have no reason to be competitive while there are several games on the docket that could potentially hurt national title runs. We won’t get to see Heisman Trophy winner Johnny “Football” Manziel until the second half … of the Rice game … because of his violation of the spirit of a bylaw. I’m just glad we’ll finally get to talk about something this kid does on the field rather than on Twitter or at a frat party. Over thirty teams will break in a new head coach, including the return of the polarizing Bobby Petrino (Western Kentucky) who faces off against first-time head coach Mark Stoops (Kentucky). There are two teams (Oregon & Wisconsin) with first-year head coaches and three teams (Ohio State, Texas A&M, & UCLA) with head coaches in their second year that are ranked in the AP Top 25. All that being said, let’s go ahead and dive into some games!

1. North Carolina at #6 South Carolina (5pm CST Thursday on ESPN): I’d like to start by saying I hate that we’re starting the 2013 season without Marcus Lattimore on South Carolina’s roster. I was hoping he’d take a medical redshirt so we could see him play in the first season with the playoff system. However, it was a great gamble by 49ers GM Trent Baalke taking Lattimore in the fourth round of April’s NFL Draft and one I think will pay off as early as the 2014 season. JaDaveon Clowney, who we haven’t seen since he made the hit of the season on Michigan running back Vincent Smith in the Outback Bowl, takes the field tonight amid preseason Heisman hype. He faces off against a Tar Heels team that is now eligible for postseason play and is led by an underrated quarterback named Bryn Renner. He’ll need some help from his secondary because Renner will certainly test them as long as he’s upright. UNC head coach Larry Fedora is in his second season and I expect his team to make a run at the ACC title (they would have won the Coastal Division last season if they had been eligible). Steve Spurrier has named sophomore Mike Davis as the starter at running back and I liked what he did in spot service behind Lattimore and Kenny Miles last season. This game will be more competitive than most people seem to think it will be, but remember that South Carolina didn’t start the season off strongly last season either as they struggled in a win against Vanderbilt. North Carolina will be a good team. The Gamecocks will leave the field winners, but I don’t see them winning big.

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