Jug, Floyd, and Axe in the Top 51 rivalries of college football per The Athletic.



The axe is criminally low. Also shame on them for not including the bits of broken chair.
It's not a ranking of the trophies, it's a ranking of the best rivalries. Top 10 is pretty good - although OSU-PSU at #8 even those fan bases agree that is laughable to have them ranked that high.

Also I think most Hawkeye fans would agree that Iowa-Wisconsin should not be ranked higher than Iowa-Minnesota.
 

The axe is criminally low. Also shame on them for not including the bits of broken chair.
his rating is based on random criteria he's decided, including national relevance/ranked matchups (because that matters for a rivalry?). There are a bunch of regional rivalries with hatred that runs deeeep that should be way higher on the list (Utah BYU, Pitt WVU, Oregon-OSU, IA-ISU for quick hitters) compared with say OSU-PSU which you won't find an OSU fan state they care about that game and Mich-PSU which Michigan fans are making fun of even being on the list, the same as you won't really find a Mich fan who cares about the MSU fan the way the MSU fans care about it. versus you find MN and WI fans or IA-ISU fans who will say things like they could go 1-11 but as long as that win is over the rival, its an ok season.

It's a silly list he won't win with making, but he's going to get a whole bunch of comments on and make money for the Athletic and his twitter page, which is all he really cares about.
 









There is actually a discussion in the comments whether Minnesota-Wisconsin is too high on the list.

Basically the reply to anyone saying it's too high (from neutral fans as I can tell) is that "You know nothing about college football"
 


In another article, he talks about defunct rivalries, and in that set he has St. John's-St. Thomas. Mainly mentioning that the D-III record attendance was the Target Field game.
 

In a bygone era, an actual journalist would have authored a book with in-depth and comprehensive research and meaningful analysis that would have been a great and insightful read. Today we get online “personalities” that slap together shite like this because “who has time to do it right anymore?” Just keeping the pipeline full to generate clicks. In a few more years it will be all AI generated content that may offer better comprehensive research (one can hope), but will lack any soul or spark.
 



In a bygone era, an actual journalist would have authored a book with in-depth and comprehensive research and meaningful analysis that would have been a great and insightful read. Today we get online “personalities” that slap together shite like this because “who has time to do it right anymore?” Just keeping the pipeline full to generate clicks. In a few more years it will be all AI generated content that may offer better comprehensive research (one can hope), but will lack any soul or spark.
Dochterman is actually usually quite good and writes with some soul. His "methodology" isn't terrible, but there's no real way to rank these games aside from putting MN-WI at #1

fine 2nd if you want to say OSU-MI is first
 

It's not a ranking of the trophies, it's a ranking of the best rivalries. Top 10 is pretty good - although OSU-PSU at #8 even those fan bases agree that is laughable to have them ranked that high.

Also I think most Hawkeye fans would agree that Iowa-Wisconsin should not be ranked higher than Iowa-Minnesota.
Well if that's the criteria the axe is without question #1. Boarder rivalry 134 years. 63-63-8. I rest my case
 


What is really cool is each trophy has a cool story, one started it all, and one represents the oldest continuous rivalry...

Now you add on the first social media (?) created trophy and you have to admit Minnesota has the best collection of trophies that it plays for.
No doubt
 


It's not a ranking of the trophies, it's a ranking of the best rivalries. Top 10 is pretty good - although OSU-PSU at #8 even those fan bases agree that is laughable to have them ranked that high.

Also I think most Hawkeye fans would agree that Iowa-Wisconsin should not be ranked higher than Iowa-Minnesota.
Any rivalry that isn’t saved can’t really be placed above a rivalry that is played annually IMO
 




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