The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party

One of the fiercest rivalries in college basketball, and perhaps the only one to reach national consciousness out of the women's game. The matchup features two long-tenured and media savvy coaches generally acknowledged among the top five ever in their sport, over two dozen players who went on to play in the WNBA, and two programs that have combined for 14 national championships. Four times, the national championship has been on the line.The schools started playing each other in 1995. As of early 2007, UConn leads the series 13-9, including 5-2 in the tournament and 4-0 for the title. However, it should be noted the the Lady Vols have won the last three games against UConn. Even though I grew up and still reside in the deep South this has always been one of my personal favorite games to watch every year.

The rivalry between these two tradition rich programs is among the more notable in NCAA Division I sports because both schools are located within the same city The campuses are only ten miles apart. The sheer proximity of both alumni and students, and the likelihood of encountering each other and interacting on a daily basis make this one of the most intense college rivalries in the United States. Known simply as "The Game". Beating the rival is often considered more important than the team's season record. Furthermore, since Ivy League schools do not participate in post-season football games, The Game is usually the final game of the season (except for 1919, when Harvard beat Yale 3-0 and went on to the Rose Bowl, where they defeated Oregon 7-6); since most Ivy League football players do not go on to professional careers in the sport (the league does not offer athletic scholarships), it is almost always the graduating seniors' final organized game. The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.

This rivalry has always been a heated one but over the past five or six years this game inches closer and closer to the level of The Iron Bowl. UGA fans despise Florida, in a movethat served to rally the underdog Bulldogs and add fuel to the rivalry, the 2007 game will be remembered for "The Gator Stomp", in which the entire Georgia team left the sideline for a mass-celebration in the Gator endzone after their first touchdown. Although this did prove to pump the team up, Georgia was given two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and was forced to kick off from their own 8 yard line. Georgia coach Mark Richt admitted that he ordered his team to draw an excessive celebration penalty after their first touchdown or they would be subject to extra conditioning drills, but he intended that only the players on the field would celebrate, not the entire team.16 The risky move paid off for Richt, as Knowshon Moreno ran for 188 yards and Georgia's defense sacked Florida quarterback Tim Tebow six times in a 42-30 victory.But the very next year in 2008 the Gators would get their revenge in a 49-10 thumping of the Bulldogs, handing Coach Mark Richt the worst loss of his head coaching careerand the 2nd worst loss that the Bulldogs had ever suffered against the Gators (Georgia lost 47-7 to the national champion 1996 Gators)..