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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/GreenKeel on 2024-03-07 08:31:56.
I’m a big fan of in-state rivalries, and out of curiosity I decided to look at how many flagship universities have losing all-time records against their primary in-state rival. The answer is, not a lot.
Of the 23 in-state rivalries I looked at, flagship universities led the series in 18 of them. Aside from LSU and Penn State, the flagship schools are all “University of ____”. I used Wikipedia and didn’t record ties.
One common theme I saw is that despite having the all-time losing record, many of the non-flagship schools hold the record for biggest win. The largest I saw was a New Mexico A&M (now NMSU) stomping of UNM, 110-3.
FLAGSHIP SCHOOLS WITH A WINNING RECORD AGAINST IN-STATE RIVAL
- Florida vs Florida State (37-28)
- North Carolina vs NC State (59-39)
- Alabama vs Auburn (50-37)
- Colorado vs Colorado State (68-22)
- Oregon vs Oregon State (68-49)
- Washington vs Washington State (76-33)
- New Mexico vs NM State (73-35)
- Utah vs BYU (62-35)
- Nevada vs UNLV (29-20)
- Iowa vs Iowa State (47-23)
- Kansas vs Kansas State (65-51)
- Texas vs Texas A&M (76-37)
- Tennessee vs Vanderbilt (78-33)
- Penn State vs Pitt (53-43)
- South Carolina vs Clemson (73-43)
- Georgia vs Georgia Tech (71-41)
- Michigan vs Michigan State (73-38)
- LSU vs Tulane (69-22)
FLAGSHIP SCHOOLS WITH A LOSING RECORD AGAINST IN-STATE RIVAL
- Clemson vs South Carolina (73-43)
- Virginia Tech vs UVA (61-38)
- Purdue vs Indiana (77-42)
- Boston College vs UMass (22-5)
- UCLA vs California (55-34)
Does flagship status really set a program up for historic success or is it mostly a coincidence?