College Basketball

College basketball tiers: Duke-UNC, Indiana-Purdue among top rivalry games

Published Feb. 3, 2023 8:53 a.m. ET

The beauty of college rivalries, especially college basketball conference rivalries, is they usually matter well beyond bragging rights — and that is definitely the case this weekend.

With a number of much-anticipated rivalry games on the men's college basketball schedule, this seems like a perfect time to dive into the conversation of the top rivalries in the sport.

I broke them down into three tiers: Conference rivalries, non-conference rivalries and hidden games.

Let's get to it.

Tier 1: Conference rivalries

Duke-North Carolina, USC-UCLA headline top rivalries

FOX Sports’ Andy Katz shares his three tiers of the best rivalries in college basketball. Duke-North Carolina headline the top tier.

North Carolina and Duke are one and two games, respectively, behind first-place Clemson in the ACC. So, Saturday's game at Cameron Indoor Stadium is highly relevant in the chase for the top seed in the conference. Dealing with Virginia, Pittsburgh, Miami (Fla.) and NC State, as well, is another matter. They're all part of a crowded field at the top of the ACC.

The first of two games between Purdue and Indiana is set to take place Saturday in Bloomington. The Hoosiers are 4.5 games behind Purdue in the Big Ten. Catching Purdue is unlikely, if not impossible, with only nine conference games remaining. Still, trying to get one of the two would be critical for seeding in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament. Trying to get the win in Mackey Arena would be even more difficult for the Hoosiers. Both of these matchups should be big-time games with two of the premier big men in the country in Zach Edey and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The Michigan-Michigan State rivalry has always been heated, regardless of whom Tom Izzo has had to coach against in the past 20 years. There is genuine distaste for the two schools among the fan bases.

The USC-UCLA rivalry in basketball has produced plenty of close games, as evident by the first of the two this season at Pauley Pavilion. The second one last week at the Galen Center wasn’t close, and the Trojans got a much-needed win.

Bedlam (Oklahoma and Oklahoma State) on the court is still intense, so that has to be on the list, and while Kansas has dominated Kansas State — when the Wildcats are relevant — the games in Bramlage Coliseum are always high level.

Saint Mary's has made Gonzaga take notice by actually beating the Zags at McKeon Pavilion on occasion. Penn-Princeton is the best of the Ivy League rivalries, and usually goes a long way in determining the Ivy champion. I like adding Nate Oats-Bruce Pearl going forward in Alabama-Auburn, and even though it’s not football, it’s hard not to add in anything Army-Navy since they're both in the Patriot League.

Tier 2: Non-conference

Kentucky-Louisville hasn’t mattered as much lately. It was a tremendous, hate-filled rivalry when it was John Calipari and Rick Pitino. That’s not going to happen with Kenny Payne, since he worked for Calipari. Louisville has to climb back into relevance for this to be a major deal again.

I’ve witnessed Utah-BYU, Xavier-Cincinnati, Iowa-Iowa State, Missouri-Illinois, Wisconsin-Marquette and New Mexico-New Mexico State, and I love them all. There have been plenty of times when both teams have been at or near the top of their conference. There has been plenty of nastiness in each of these games at times over the last few decades. I still need to get to Seton Hall-Rutgers, Florida-Florida State and Creighton-Nebraska.

Tier 3: Hidden gems

Rhode Island might be the smallest state, but there is plenty of interest in college hoops, especially when you have the small, private Catholic school against the state school in the southern part of the state. I’ve seen how Providence-URI delivers. I’ve also witnessed how the Wyoming-Colorado State game can be a bitter dispute over two schools separated by a few hours up I-25. At some point, I need to see firsthand the intensity of Belmont-Murray State in the Missouri Valley Conference and Richmond-VCU in the A-10. Getting to Montana-Montana State in the Big Sky is a bucket list item.

Andy Katz is a longtime college basketball writer, analyst and host. He can be seen on the Big Ten Network, as well as March Madness and NCAA.com, and he hosts the podcast "March Madness 365." Katz worked at ESPN for nearly two decades and, prior to that, in newspapers for nine years.

Top stories from FOX Sports: