Project Rivalry: Battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy; Michigan vs Michigan State

The Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans are separated by about 64 miles. They are about a one hour drive away from one another, but just because they're fairly close does not mean these two schools get along.

The Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans
lock horns every year in this popular rivalry.

The Wolverines and Spartans play yearly for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Paul Bunyan, the imaginary lumberjack, seemed like the perfect person to represent this rivalry's trophy with Michigan being a major lumber producing state. However the Paul Bunyan Trophy was presented into the rivalry until 1953.

The first meeting between these two teams was on October 12, 1898. In this meeting, Michigan won with a final score of 39-0. Overall (pre-Paul Bunyan Trophy as well as post-trophy), the teams have met a total of 105 times with Michigan leading the rivalry 68-32-5 (although they only lead the series post-trophy 35-23-3).

Michigan owns the largest margin of victory record in the rivalry, with a 49-3 victory in 2002, and a ridiculous 119-0 score in 1902 before the Paul Bunyan Trophy was presented.

Through 1957 the Wolverines had the home field advantage in the rivalry most of the time, hosting the rivalry game 44 times in Ann Arbor and only traveling to East Lansing six times.

From 1950-1969 the Spartans had a good grasp on the rivalry as they had a winning record of 14-4-2. However in 1969 the Wolverines hired Bo Schembechler as their new head coach. After his hiring, from 1970-2007 Michigan went 30-8 against their rival.

The Paul Bunyan Trophy was first presented
into this rivalry in 1953.

In 2004 the Wolverines and Spartans battled to triple overtime, which was the first time there had ever been a triple overtime game in Michigan Stadium. Michigan went on to win the game 45-37.

After winning their sixth straight victory over the Spartans, Michigan's running back Mike Hart referred to Michigan State as "little brother". After Hart said that, the Spartans defeated the Wolverines in four straight meetings with Michigan finally breaking the four game winning streak this past year in Ann Arbor.

This rivalry has not only seen some legendary players on the field, but it's also seen legendary coaches. It is a yearly game, which is obviously an in-state rivalry. It is a rivalry that should be played for years to come. It's a rivalry that has given us many great football memories, and will surely give us many more to come. If you are from or live in Michigan, odds are you either bleed maize and blue or you bleed green. Either way, you'll look forward to that Saturday when the Wolverines and Spartans lock horns.

The next matchup between the Wolverines and Spartans will be October 20, 2013. Surely it will be televised, and Michigan State will be looking to win the Paul Bunyan Trophy and lock it up in East Lansing.

- Matt Lytle

@mattlytle

Project Rivalry: Iron Bowl; Alabama vs Auburn

The Iron Bowl.

Alabama Crimson Tide vs Auburn Tigers.

Roll Tide vs War Eagle.

The Iron Bowl is one of the most storied rivalries not only in the SEC, but in all of college football. The first game of the rivalry was played on February 22, 1893. Auburn won 32-22. The game was played in front of a crowd of roughly 5,000 people at Lakeview Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

After the 1907 game, which ended in a 6-6 tie, the schools could not agree on the amount of expenses to be paid to players, as well as where they would obtain the officials for the game. Therefore they put the feud on hold.  The Alabama congress threatened to withhold funding from both schools unless the rivalry resumed. Fortunately for Alabama and Auburn fans, the rivalry resumed in 1948. It was agreed that the games would be played in Bimingham because it had the largest stadium in the state, Legion Field which held 44,000 seats.

In 1980 the series had come to be called The Iron Bowl due to Birmingham's prominence as a center of iron and steel production. Auburn's coach at the time, Shug Jordan coined the term "Iron Bowl". Alabama's coach Bear Bryant wanted to call the game the "Brag Bowl" due to the fact that after you win in the game, you have a whole year to brag about the victory.

In 1989 the Iron Bowl began being a "home-and-home" series. On December 2, 1989 Alabama came to Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time in the history of the rivalry. A sold out crowd witnessed Auburn win it's first true "home" game of the series, 30-21. Alabama came into that game unbeaten and ranked #2 in the country.

Alabama held their "home" games at Legion Field, but in 1998 they expanded Bryant-Denny Stadium to a capacity of 83,818, exceeding Legion Field by a few hundred. In the year 2000 Alabama moved their home games to Bryant-Denny Stadium where their home games are still played to this day.

The winner of the game is presented with the Foy-ODK Sportsmanship Award, which is named after James E. Foy, who is an Alabama graduate, and also a former Auburn dean of students and Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society.

One of the most shocking things to come out of this rivalry was on January 11, 2011 a man going by the name of "Al" called into the Paul Finebaum sports radio talk show and admitted to poisoning two trees (known as "Toomer's Trees), which were the center of a long tradition that Auburn fans would take part in called "rolling the corner" (the trees were located on the corner of Magnolia Avenue and College street across from Toomer's Drugs). After soil samples were taken, it was determined that the trees were poisoned. Sadly the trees are scheduled to be taken down in April of this year.

The rivalry has seen many oustanding players such as Bo Jackson, Cam Newton, Johnny Musso and Pat Sullivan. It also has seen many great coaches, such as arguably the greatest coach ever Paul "Bear" Bryant.

This rivalry is a long bitter rivalry which is one of the most heated rivalries in college football. Both teams have been among the nation's elite teams for decades. They have also accounted for 30 SEC titles and are two of the most winningest college football teams in college football history.

- Matt Lytle

@mattlytle