Why the Apple Cup and college football rivalries are so important
Yahoo Sports Daily host Caroline Fenton and Yahoo Sports' Jay Busbee are joined by USA Sports' Nate Gatter to discuss why college football rivalries are so important for the sport. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
I think we need more rivalries, and if we have to play them in week one, then so be it.
Right?
I, I don't particularly care when it happens.
Maybe for some fans who have grown up with the tradition, they might rather have this game toward the end of the season.
We're gonna have the same kind of dynamic going on with Wyoming and Colorado State playing earlier than they ever have.
We've, we've seen this throughout the country, right?
That some old rivals who aren't in the same conference are having to get creative with ways to maintain their series.
Is Notre Dame and USC returning in future years in week one gonna feel the same?
Maybe not, but it's gonna feel a lot better than not having it at all.
What's important to me is that people in college sports, and in college football in particular, recognize their comparative advantage, which is pageantry, it is tradition, it is regional rivalry, and we have to do whatever it takes to keep those things alive.
And if that means playing Apple Cups in week one, then so be it.
Nate, I completely agree with you.
I wrote a whole book on the Iron Bowl, Alabama and Auburn.
But what does it mean to you to see these kinds of rivalries perpetuate?
What do What does the rivalry aspect of college football make it such a differentiator?
Well, what it means to me is it tells me who are the coaches in the athletics departments who get it and who are the ones who don't, who are the ones who care about the fans enough that they're willing to find a way to make it work.
I don't know when at any level of sports, but especially in college sports, we became fans who care more about boardroom battles than we care about on-field battles.
Because a- again, to use the Notre Dame/USC example just because it was prominently out there this off-season, it applies to other match-ups as well.
There's a lot of fans talking about, "Well, they need us more than we need them," or, "They're obsessed with us.
We don't even care about them."
when did that become trendy?
You should be obsessed with your rival.
You should care about your rival a lot.
You should have stuff up at the facility about your rival.
You as a fan should think every day about how much you hate your rival.
This should not be a matchup for who can care less.
I mean, this is-- We have this in other elements of our society, right?
I get that we all wanna be nonchalant and show how cool we are, but like u- i-it's okay to care.
It's good to care.
If we don't care, what are we even doing here?
So to me, the It, it's sports are about, about inspiring emotion and emotional reactions in people and giving yourself a reason to get up that week and, and get outta bed and get after it, right?
Or i- for these players, it's giving yourself a reason in March and April to get after it because of that rivalry meeting that's looming in the fall.
It To me, that's the beauty of any competitive endeavor, and we should be leaning into that, not trying to minimize it to make ourselves seem cooler than our rival
