College Football: 25 most underappreciated team rivalries of all time

19. Auburn Tigers vs. Georgia Bulldogs

Often called the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, the Georgia Bulldogs and the Auburn Tigers have never had any love lost between the two teams. These are two programs with rich football traditions and rabid fanbases in the southeastern United States. With both teams playing in the SEC, there’s a good reason this rivalry has long been a great one that is always highly contested and heated.

Georgia and Auburn first played one another on the gridiron in 1892 and have met 123 times over their history. The Bulldogs hold the edge overall in the rivalry, having gone 59-56-8 against the Tigers throughout their games against each other. Furthermore, the Bulldogs got a big laugh in 2017 as, even though they lost to the Tigers in the regular season, they overcame Auburn in the SEC Championship Game.

That highlights one of the best parts of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry and something that makes it quite special. Despite that Georgia is in SEC East and Auburn has been in the SEC West since divisions formed in 1992, they still play annually. Every year, the two teams are the cross-divisional game for one another, which adds a special wrinkle to the rivalry.

Because of the strength of the SEC and the many rivalries that are involved in the conference — and even that both schools have other bigger rivals — the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry is a bit underappreciated. However, it’s still a historic and usually quality game between two prestigious programs in the sport.