It’s Rivalry Weekend in College Football and that means it’s put away the turkey and get out the school colors to let loose all emotions on what for many fans is the biggest sports event of the year. It’s when neighbors and friends turn on each other for a few hours, when husbands and wives don’t see eye to eye, when stadiums are full of people passionately cheering for their team because it means so much to beat the rival.
PubClub.com, with the help of AccuWeather, has the weather forecasts for the key college football rivalries – plus a potential modern-day “Ice Bowl” in Green Bay – for these important games.
Friday, Nov. 29
Georgia Tech at Georgia (7:30 p.m., Athens, GA, ABC)
Weather: Clear and cold, mid 40s to start, upper 30s by the end of the game, Northwest wind 6-12 mph. Sanford Stadium, known in the South as “tween the hedges” is oriented north/south. The Rivalry: Known as Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate, this game dates back to 1893.
Saturday, Nov. 30
Michigan at Ohio State (Noon, Columbus, Ohio, FOX)
Weather: Sunshine and cold, near 30, wind west at 8-16 mph. Stadium is oriented north/south so this would be a light cross wind. The Rivalry: This is such a bitter rivalry that, legend has it, Woody Hays once ran out of gas on a recruiting trip to Michigan and pushed his car back into Ohio because he did not want to buy gas in the Wolverine state.
Auburn at Alabama (3:30 p.m., Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, ABC)
The Weather: Sunshine and cool – mid 50s, light wind. The Rivalry: Known as the Iron Bowl because it was once played in steel-producing Birmingham, it dates back to 1893. It has has long been one of the most heated collegiate rivalries in any American sport, of the Bear and Shug, Ken Stabler’s “Run in the Mud,” The Kick, the Kick 6 and Gravedigger.
Notre Dame at USC (3:30 p.m., Los Angeles Coliseum, CBS)
The Weather: Cloudy to partly sunny, upper 70s, light wind. The Rivalry: It began in 1926 after the wives of the athletic directors talked to work out an annual game. One key point was that, while Notre Dame would travel to USC on Thanksgiving Weekend, USC would not go to South Bend in November so the game there takes place in October.
Texas at Texas A&M (7:30 p.m., Kyle Field, College Station, ABC)
The Weather: Partly cloudy and cool, lower 50s, light wind. The Rivalry: Bitter. Especially since this annual Thanksgiving Weekend game has not been played in 13 years after the Aggies moved to the SEC. But now it’s back and it restores a tradition that dates back to 1894. Fans loathe the other school so much that Aggies say they puke at the color of burnt orange and Longhorns fans sing “goodbye to A&M.”
Washington at Oregon (7:30 p.m., Autzen Stadium, Eugene, Oregon, 7:30 p.m., NBC)
The Weather: Partly sunny, lower 40s, light wind. The Rivalry: Oregon is undefeated and ranked #1 in the country and is a near lock for the College Football Playoffs. It was in a similar situation last year and had two chances to get there and both times was knocked out by Washington. So this is not a deep, hated years-long rivalry but a very modern one.
NFL – Miami at Green Bay (Thanksgiving Night, 8 p.m., Lambeau Field, NBC)
Weather: This is a potential modern-day Ice Bowl, nostly cloudy and cold, mid-upper 20s and a northwest wind at 8-16 mph will make it feel like it’s in the teens. Lambeau Field is oriented north/south so the wind will be generally blowing the length of the field (not a cross wind). The Game: Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is from Honolulu, is famously 0-6 when it’s 46 degrees or colder.
NFL – San Francisco at Buffalo (Sunday Night, Highmark Stadium, 8:20 p.m., NBC)
Highmark Stadium will probably get hit with lake effect snow Saturday, Saturday night and perhaps Sunday morning which can bring 1-2 feet of snow. The band of snow should shift south of the stadium Sunday afternoon and evening leaving mainly dry weather during the game. There could be 3-4 feet of snow before the game 15 miles south of the stadium and very little snow 10 miles north. That’s common with these lake effect snow events. Those traveling from south of the stadium on Sunday may have problems. Temperatures at game time will be close to 30 with a west wind at 7-14 mph. The stadium is oriented northwest to southeast. “I suspect there will likely be many snowball fights at the tailgates!,” AccuWeather’s Tom Kines said.
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