College Football: 25 most underappreciated team rivalries of all time

23. Lafayette Leopards vs. Lehigh Mountain Hawks

Most college football fans aren’t looking at a new college football season and getting excited for the Lafayette Leopards and the Lehigh Mountain Hawks playing one another. However, fans in Pennsylvania aren’t included in this.

This is a game that sells out every year, usually well before the day of the game. That gets fans of both teams quite hyped. After all, you don’t earn the ominous nickname of The Rivalry for nothing.

The Rivalry is the most played college football rivalry game in the country. There have been 154 meetings between the two teams and they’ve played every year since 1897 — in addition to have played annually except in 1896 since they first squared off in 1884.

On top of that, The Rivalry has long been tightly contested, as the Mountain Hawks hold just a slim 78-71-5 advantage over the Leopards.

Even more interesting about The Rivalry is that there is no actual trophy for the game, a rarity among many rivalries in the sport. The team simply keeps the game ball, paints it with the score, and then displays it in the trophy case. That bit of simple tradition is a nice touch, even if we don’t have some crazily named totem to hang our hats on with this rivalry.

Though this might not be a game between big-time programs or even FBS schools (Lafayette and Lehigh play in the FCS’s Patriot League), it’s a rivalry that deserves a strong place in college football lore. These two schools are just 17 miles apart and The Rivalry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon because of that, in addition to its rich history.