We wrap up our series of the 100 best rivalries in men’s college basketball with our final list breaking down the top 25.
Check out our previous lists as we break down the top 100 rivalries in men’s college basketball:
25. St. John’s vs. UConn
St. John’s was initially the dominant program when these two first shared the Big East spotlight, but UConn then consistently dominated and bullied the Johnnies from the early ‘90s up until the recent arrival of Rick Pitino in Queens. Now, the two make up perhaps the fastest growing, and one of the hottest glowing rivalries in the sport. With the success of the two teams and the fieriness of the two head coaches, there was zero chance that this wasn’t going to become a thing.
24. Providence vs. Georgetown
Another Big East rivalry that has ratcheted up the intensity in recent years due to a coaching change, although this one is a little bit more straightforward. Providence fans thought Ed Cooley — the super successful head coach who just so happened to have been born and raised in Providence — would never leave them. When he did, it hurt. When the destination was a Big East rival, it enraged everyone who reps the black, white and silver.
The games that have been played between the two programs since have provided some absolute scenes.
Every time the two teams meet has become must-see-tv.
23. West Virginia vs. Pitt
Though it felt a bit more relevant when both programs were slugging it out in the Big East, the basketball version of the Backyard Brawl still delivers more times than not from an intensity and game quality standpoint. West Virginia leads the all-time seires, 101-89.
22. North Carolina vs. NC State
My apologies to the North Carolina fans who just threw up seeing these two names next to one another as one of the sport’s 25 best rivalries. Yes, North Carolina has almost always been the better program. Yes, in most years it feels like the game means a little bit more to NC State. Yes, it’s still one of the sport’s oldest (and best!) rivalries.
21. Belmont vs. Lipscomb
One of the closest geographical rivalries in the sport (the schools are only two miles apart), it doesn’t get much better in mid-major basketball than the Battle of the Boulevard. The two schools that exist on literally the same street have been going at it in various levels of college basketball since 1953. In 1990, they played a grand total of SIX times, including a 124-117 thriller won by Lipscomb in front of 16,000 fans at Vanderbilt Gymnasium, still the largest crowd ever to see an NAIA basketball game.
20. Texas vs. Texas A&M
While a lot of rivalries have been hurt by recent doses of conference realignment, the Lonestar Showdown is hotter than ever thanks to Texas’ move to the SEC. The most recent game in the series — which dates back to 1917 — was a double overtime thriller in the 2025 SEC Tournament won by the Longhorns.
19. Wisconsin vs. Marquette
The I-94 rivalry never seems to be mentioned as a top-tier rivalry in the sport, which doesn’t make any sense. Both programs have a rich basketball history, they’ve played competitive games annually almost every single year since 1917, and they can’t stand one another. Wisconsin leads the all-time series 71-60, but the all-time point differential in the games between the two sits at just 34.
18. UCLA vs. USC
Just a classic Big Ten rivalry. In all seriousness, even with the still odd-feeling conference affiliation, seeing these two uniforms going up against each other does something wonderful for the basketball soul whenever it happens.
17. New Mexico vs. New Mexico State
It feels like the average sports fan is unaware of just how much disdain exists in the Rio Grande Rivalry. In the last 15 years alone we’ve seen a super successful head coach leave one program for the other and become the most hated man in Las Cruces. We’ve seen a fight at the football version of the rivalry game involving basketball players that ultimately led to a shooting weeks later. And we’ve seen the two programs combine for 15 NCAA Tournament appearances since 2010.
16. BYU vs. Utah
Speaking of high levels of disdain, the “Holy War” brings the heat every single time these two step up on the court donning the red or the blue. While the football version of this rivalry has taken the spotlight in recent years, it’s the rivalry on the hardwood that has the better history.
15. Kent State vs. Akron
While Gonzaga-Saint Mary’s is widely referred to as the “best” rivalry in mid-major basketball (I know we’re now supposed to say that word in relation to the Zags, but whatever), it’s Kent State vs. Akron that brings the most pure hatred at the mid-major level. While the contentiousness between these two has been there for decades, things have been taken to another level in recent years.
In 2022, four key members of the Kent State team were suspended for the championship game against after video surfaced of them performing a profane “F—k Akron” song in the locker room after their win in the semifinals.
Akron, who was an underdog in the game before the suspensions, would go on to beat the Golden Flashes by 20 and punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament. Kent State would exact a measure of redemption a year later, topping the Zips in the MAC semifinals before blowing out top-seeded Toledo to win the tournament.
Then came 2024. After a stunning run to the tournament championship game as the league’s 8th-seed, Kent State appeared poised for the sweetest of upset wins over its second-seeded arch-rivals. But disaster struck in the closing seconds as Julius Rollins — one of the players who appeared in the infamous locker room video two years prior — didn’t realize his team had the lead and intentionally fouled Akron’s Greg Tribble. Tribble made both free-throws and the Zips went on to face Creighton in the NCAA tournament.
A narrow loss by Kent State in the MAC semifinals last season was the only thing that kept these two from meeting once again with a trip to the Big Dance on the line. Akron would ultimately win the tournament and hear its name called on Selection Sunday.
14. Illinois vs. Missouri
Braggin’ rights!
The regional rivals met sporadically between 1932 and 1976, when an agreement to play an annual contest was formed. The teams have played every year since, with Illinois currently holding a 35-20 advantage in the series.
13. Kansas vs. Kansas State
The Sunflower Showdown has always been theater, but it’s gotten better in recent years with Kansas State getting more licks in than they did in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Kansas still dominates the all-time series (203-97), but K-State has won at least one of the regular season meetings in each of the last three seasons. The two teams also gave us one of the more memorable in-game fights in recent college basketball history. Put the chair down, Silvio.
12. Kentucky vs. Tennessee
This border rivalry has always been good, but recently it’s gotten particularly spicy. Tennessee fans will point to the fact that they’ve gotten the better of the mighty Wildcats since 2016, including a Sweet 16 blowout a year ago. Kentucky fans will point to the fact that the Volunteers have still never played in a single Final Four. Both points are pretty legit.
11. Auburn vs. Alabama
Yes, they care about beating each other in basketball too. Maybe not as much as they do in football, but flip on either of the two meetings between the Tide and the Tigers and it’ll be impossible to deny the passion that also exists on the hardwood. A year ago the rivalry provided the first game in SEC history between the current No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the AP poll. It also saw the first time in the rivalry’s history that the road team won both regular season meetings. Alabama holds the all-time edge in the series, 103-69.
10. UCLA vs. Arizona
The most storied West Coast rivalry in the sport, the Bruins and Wildcats first met in 1923 but didn’t play consistently until Arizona joined the Pac-10 in 1978. The rivalry took off from there, with the pair playing two games annually, almost always featuring both teams ranked somewhere in the AP top 25 poll. UCLA holds a 64-50 edge in the series, which has thankfully continued in the form of a single non-conference game since the Bruins’ split for the Big 10.
9. Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary’s
No two teams have dominated a conference over the last two decades plus like these two have dominated the West Coast Conference. Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga have met in six of the last seven WCC tournament championship games, with the Zags winning five and the Gaels winning two. One of the wildest active college basketball stats out there is that Gonzaga has played in every WCC tournament championship game since all the way back in 1997. The only four WCC tournaments the Bulldogs have not won since 2008 have all come via championship game losses to Saint Mary’s, the most recent of which was in 2024.
In all, Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary’s for a conference tournament title has happened 16 times, all since 2004. That’s the most common conference championship game matchup in college basketball history (Duke vs. North Carolina is second with 14 meetings).
Oh yeah, and they despise one another.
8. Iowa vs. Iowa State
The early December energy inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena or Hilton Coliseum for this one is pretty much unmatched in college basketball. There’s a different feel to a hated rivalry where both sides know they’re not going to get another shot at the other for 12 whole months. Iowa leads the all-time series (48-30), but the Cyclones have won three of the last four.
7. Michigan State vs. Michigan
It’s always been great, but this is one of the rivalries on the list that appears poised to get even better in the years ahead. Tom Izzo and John Beliein had this thing really humming a few years back, and it feels like Izzo vs. Dusty May is going to provide that same energy. Not only are both programs in good shape overall, but you have the added bonus of a little dust-up between the two during May’s first season in Ann Arbor.
Izzo has been the king of basketball in The Great Lakes State for a long while now, but May certainly seems to have everything needed to come for the throne.
6. Georgetown vs. Syracuse
There was a time where this rivalry probably would have sat at No. 1 on a list like this. The rivalry has certainly faded in recent years thanks in equal part to conference realignment and the struggles of both programs, particularly Georgetown. Even so, the two teams not playing one another during the 2025-26 season feels sacrilegious.
5. Kansas vs. Missouri
The original “conference realignment ruined this great rivalry” game. From 1907 through 2012, the two hated rivals existed in the same conference and competed annually in all sports. Then, Missouri made the surprise jump to the SEC. The two hoops programs went nearly a decade without playing one another before resuming the “Border War” in 2021. Mizzou knocked off KU last season for the first time since 2012, but the Jayhawks still own the all-time series advantage at 176-96.
4. Indiana vs. Purdue
With Purdue vaulting to the status of perennially elite and Indiana struggling to get back to the same place, this one has been even more fun than usual in recent seasons. Despite all the Boilermakers’ success under Matt Painter, IU fans are still able to gleefully point out that their biggest rival has still never reached the sport’s mountain top.
3. Cincinnati vs. Xavier
There is just off-the-charts hatred filling the gymnasium every time these crosstown rivals are filling it together. Cincy leads the all-time series by 12 (52-40), but Xavier has won five of the last six meetings. Only “A Charlie Brown Christmas” delivers more consistently in December than this game.
2. Louisville vs. Kentucky
Simply put, there are no two college basketball fan bases that care more about beating the other than Kentucky and Louisville. Everything in the Bluegrass State, and I mean everything, comes back to the basketball rivalry. Three-hundred and sixty five days a year. Every year. The rivalry has the hatred, the history, and the success of the two programs to challenge for the top spot on this list. What it doesn’t have is the competitiveness. Kentucky has owned the all-time series (40-17) at every stage of its existence. Pat Kelsey gets his second shot at starting to change that when the two teams meet in Louisville on Nov. 11, the earliest meeting in the history of the rivalry.
1. Duke vs. North Carolina
The easiest thing to do to draw attention to this series would have been to have two different teams at the top of the list. There’s simply no valid argument for it.
You can throw out the stats about the competitiveness of the series, the top-tier history of the two programs, the crazy storylines over the years; Every box gets checked here. We say it every year, and every year it holds true: Duke-Carolina always delivers.
