Basketball:
In conference- 1) Georgetown vs Villanova 2) UC vs Louisville
- Seems like a great rivalry with great history... Also its between two different religious orders
- A little bias, but i love the matchup between these two similar schools
Therefore, The basketball side has a ton of great rivalries and St. Johns should be included as should Syracuse and UConn, but personally I love the uc louisville rivalry

Out of conference- 1)UC vs XU 2)Louisville vs Kentucky
-I think UC vs XU is the 2nd best college basketball rivalry behind UNC vs Duke
-Cmon 2 great basketball programs and Kentucky fans are ridiculous
Therefore, not being bias at all these two I believe are easily the two best.

Football:
In conference- 1) Pitt vs. West Virginia 2) Pitt vs. UC
- The Pitt West Virginia game is hands down the best football rivalry in the big east.
- As of lately Pitt vs UC has been a recipe for great games. Even the Beast thought it would be a great game and gave it a trophy when uc joined the league

Out of conference- 1) Notre Dame vs Boston College 2) USF vs UCF
- If ND is included in the Beast then this is a great game.
- Love this even though has pretty much no history and may cause some argument

Cinncinati and Xavier are so much fun to watch, seems like everytime they play, it is explosive.

Football
In-Conference: the Backyard Brawl (WVU - Pitt)
Out-of-conference: Although dormant WVU - Virginia Tech, a close second also dormant would be Pitt - PSU.

WVU-Maryland has been pretty intense at times...

SU v G- Sorry i wont even say there name

Pitt-Notre Dame is a solid football rivalry. Its not Notre Dame's biggest game of course, but its pretty big on the Pitt side of things.

(01-05-2011 06:58 PM)papablastter Wrote:  SU v G- Sorry i wont even say there name

It's Ok to say "Syracuse..."

IMO, Syracuse/Georgetown is hands down the best BE basketball rivalry followed by SU/Uconn. UK/Louisville is another great one but its not a BE game. WV/Pitt is hands down the best fb rivalry.

WVU-Pitt ain't too shabby in basketbrawl either...

Louisville vs. Kentucky is the best non-conference rivalry in the entire country if you ask me, so it wins best out of conference rivalry for a BE team by default. I'd put X vs. UC in the Top 5, but I don't think it approaches UofL vs. UK.

UC/Xavier

few years ago SI listed the top 5 best college basketball rivalries....here was that list:

1. Duke/UNC
2. KU/Mizzou
3. Purdue/IU
4. UC/XU
5. Can't remember...might have been UofL/UK....don't quote me on that one.....

I Like RU-UConn in football. In the last 9 meetings, 7 have been decided by less than a touchdown.

For Big East Only Rivalries

The Alpha and Omega of all BB rivalries is Cuse vs Hoyas

Football:
Pitt/WV is by far the best.
A good second is RU/Uconn. This game has gone down to the wire the last several years. It is also the only other time in the BE where each sides fans see the other school as their main rival.

Basketball:
A toss up of Gtown/Nova and Cuse/UConn. Now that I thin about it, any combination of those four.

(01-05-2011 06:39 PM)natibeast21 Wrote:  Basketball:
In conference- 1) Georgetown vs Villanova 2) UC vs Louisville
- Seems like a great rivalry with great history... Also its between two different religious orders
- A little bias, but i love the matchup between these two similar schools
Therefore, The basketball side has a ton of great rivalries and St. Johns should be included as should Syracuse and UConn, but personally I love the uc louisville rivalry

I love the rivalry with UC, but in all honesty, it isn't anywhere close to Cuse vs Hoyas rivalry. The Big East was built on games involving Georgetown, Syracuse, and St John's and the Cuse vs. Gtown rivalry is arguably the most famous basketball rivalry in the conference. IMO, the top 5 Big East basketball rivalries are:

1a. Cuse vs Gtown
1b. Gtown vs Nova
3. Cuse vs UConn
4. UC vs UL
5. Pitt vs. WVU

Honorable mentions: DePaul vs Marquette (played over 100 times), Gtown vs St John's.

(01-05-2011 06:39 PM)natibeast21 Wrote:  Out of conference- 1)UC vs XU 2)Louisville vs Kentucky
-I think UC vs XU is the 2nd best college basketball rivalry behind UNC vs Duke
-Cmon 2 great basketball programs and Kentucky fans are ridiculous
Therefore, not being bias at all these two I believe are easily the two best.

In terms of OOC basketball, I'd rank the top 5 as:

1. UofL vs. UK
2. UC vs. Xavier
3. UofL vs. Memphis (dormant but the hatred is there)
4. Cuse/UConn vs. BC (dormant but I can imagine the hatred)
5. Philadelphia Big 5

Honorable mention: Marquette vs Wisconsin

(01-05-2011 06:39 PM)natibeast21 Wrote:  Football:
In conference- 1) Pitt vs. West Virginia 2) Pitt vs. UC
- The Pitt West Virginia game is hands down the best football rivalry in the big east.
- As of lately Pitt vs UC has been a recipe for great games. Even the Beast thought it would be a great game and gave it a trophy when uc joined the league

Football is difficult because the conference is so small and hasn't had decades of stability to firmly cement rivalries. For example, many were talking about a WVU vs UofL rivalry back in 2005-2007, but that has cool down quite a bit thanks to UofL's decline in football. UC vs Pitt may be hot right now, but it has only been a couple of games. IMO, I'd rank the top 5 Big East football rivalries as (not including ND):

1. WVU vs. Pitt
2a. UC vs UofL
2b. UConn vs Rutgers
4. ???????
5. ???????

(01-05-2011 06:39 PM)natibeast21 Wrote:  Out of conference- 1) Notre Dame vs Boston College 2) USF vs UCF
- If ND is included in the Beast then this is a great game.
- Love this even though has pretty much no history and may cause some argument

In terms of OOC football, I'd rank the top 5 as:

1. Pitt vs PSU (dormant but still the best)
2. Pitt vs ND
3. WVU vs Virginia Tech (dormant)
4. WVU vs Maryland
5. Cuse vs BC (dormant)

Honorable mentions: UC vs Miami (OH), UofL vs Kentucky, Cuse vs PSU (dormant)

WVU-SU is the 2nd oldest continuous football rivalry among the old eastern indies. I'd say that would make that game a fairly important rivalry for the conference, when SU is relevant...

I can't think of a 5th, unless you want to put in WVU-USF. The Bulls are the only conference team outside of Syracuse and Pitt with a .500 or better record against the Mountaineers (USF is 3-3 vs WVU)...

I'm not sure you can put anything about UC vs UL on there any more. Besides losing the home and home game in basketball, football hasn't really been that heated either. UC vs XU in basketball certainly tops UC vs UL. UC vs Miami (Ohio) in football may be bigger too, mostly because the Cryami fans continue to claim superiority when UC wins by 40+ points during a bad year.

(01-05-2011 09:07 PM)cuseroc Wrote:  IMO, Syracuse/Georgetown is hands down the best BE basketball rivalry

No question. And in football it's Pitt-WVU.

(01-06-2011 09:13 AM)UofL07 Wrote:  Honorable mentions: DePaul vs Marquette (played over 100 times), Gtown vs St John's.

Not much fire in that rivalry. DePaul brings about 20 fans to the BC when the schools play. Marquette-ND is a much bigger rivalry, having played over 115 times. Very tough ticket at both locations. Even some ND fans will admit MU is a hoops rival.

Out of conference, Marquette-Wisconsin is a huge rivalry, along the lines of X-UC, probably bigger since the school have played more often and much longer. Most businesses have alums of both schools. Families have people on both sides. Here's one of the most famous pictures in Wisconsin sports:



AL

The man whipping the finger to Al is on of the Wisconsin players dad's after Maurice Lucas hit a jumper at the buzzer to beat the weasels.

(01-06-2011 10:55 AM)MU88 Wrote:  Out of conference, Marquette-Wisconsin is a huge rivalry, along the lines of X-UC, probably bigger since the school have played more often and much longer. Most businesses have alums of both schools. Families have people on both sides.

Try having 2 schools only 3 miles apart... versus across the state. At some point it is hard to differentiate when the rivalries become very heated. There are probably 10 rivalries that all are at the top... including both mentioned above. Only 2 of them are within walking distance, however, UC vs XU and Duke vs UNC.

Tonight, 7PM, is UC vs XU, btw.