Recently I've been wondering how any other in-state rivalries compare to the Wolverines & Spartans. In the (state of) Michigan case, we have one school that has historically dominated another school on and off the field (if not the court, ha). How might that be quantified? Well, these two resources were helpful:
http://football.stassen.com/records/opponent.html
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/best-colleges/2009/03/03/athlet...
Michigan has a 68.8% winning percentage against MSU and is a whopping 45 spots ahead of it in the U.S. News and World Report ranking (for what it's worth). Domination, correct?
What other in-state rivalries compare? Sticking to apples-and-apples comparisons, there aren't many. This will be restricted to BCS-level public schools. So, I won't be comparing USC and UCLA or OSU and Kent State.
Here are the rivalries where the dominant football school (one that has won at least 60% of the games) is at least forty spaces ahead in the academic ranking. The number shown is the difference between rankings.
**: Texas and Texas Tech (which is a "Tier 3" school, meaning it's ranked somewhere beyond 130, which means that the difference is at least 83, since UT is #47)
75: Washington and Washington State
53: North Carolina and NC State
53: Florida and Florida State
47: Clemson and South Carolina
45: UM and MSU
41: Kansas and Kansas State
Here's how the ranking looks for football (with winning percentage):
74.1%: Texas and Texas Tech
68.8%: UM and MSU
65.2%: Washington and Washington State
64.6%: North Carolina and NC State
63.7%: Kansas and Kansas State
62.4%: Clemson and South Carolina
61.1%: Florida and Florida State
So, by the numbers, Texas Tech is much more of a little brother to Texas than MSU is to UM. It could be that it's just accepted there, unlike here. Any Texans care to comment on that? UW and WSU have impressive numbers, too. I have the sense that it's similar to our rivalry. None of the other rivalries (despite the impressive numbers) seem comparable. UNC, Clemson, and Kansas aren't historical football powers. Florida is obviously at the top of the heap now, but FSU has had some good years in the modern age.
Comments welcome...
