American Football On Thanksgiving - College

College

See also: List of NCAA college football rivalry games

College and professional games played over Thanksgiving weekend are usually referred to as a Classic.

The University of Michigan made it a tradition to play annual Thanksgiving games, holding 19 such games from 1885 to 1905. The Thanksgiving Day games between Michigan and the Chicago Maroons in the 1890s have been cited as "The Beginning of Thanksgiving Day Football." Today, however, the Wolverines usually play the Ohio State Buckeyes during Thanksgiving weekend. In fact, Yale and Princeton began an annual tradition of playing against each other on Thanksgiving Day starting in 1876.

The Turkey Day Classic, a college football game between Alabama State University and Tuskegee University, has been played on Thanksgiving Day annually since 1924. It is also the oldest black college football classic, since the two colleges first played each other in 1901. Another popular black college football classic played on Thanksgiving weekend is the Bayou Classic between Grambling State University and Southern University, which is held the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Other prominent college football rivalries that take place over Thanksgiving weekend include:

• Auburn Tigers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide (the Iron Bowl)
• Ole Miss Rebels vs. Mississippi State Bulldogs (the Battle of the Golden Egg, held on Thanksgiving night from 1998 to 2003)
• LSU Tigers vs. Arkansas Razorbacks (the Battle for the Golden Boot)
• Georgia Bulldogs vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate)
• BYU Cougars vs. Utah Utes (the Holy War, to 2010)
• Colorado Buffaloes vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers (Colorado–Nebraska rivalry, through 2010)
  • Colorado Buffaloes vs. Utah Utes (Colorado–Utah rivalry, 2011)
  • Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (beginning 2011)
• Oklahoma Sooners vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys (the Bedlam Series)
• Texas Longhorns vs. Texas A&M Aggies (the Lone Star Showdown, played on Thanksgiving from 2008 until its end in 2011)
• Florida Gators vs. Florida State Seminoles (the Sunshine Showdown)
• Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. USC Trojans (the Jeweled Shillelagh; rivalry is played every year but only scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend when USC hosts; USC has hosted on Thanksgiving in even-numbered years since the 1960s)
• Pittsburgh Panthers vs. West Virginia Mountaineers (the Backyard Brawl)
• Clemson Tigers vs. South Carolina Gamecocks (the Palmetto Bowl)
• Virginia Tech Hokies vs. Virginia Cavaliers (the Commonwealth Cup, erratically scheduled)
• Kentucky Wildcats vs. Tennessee Volunteers

The frequent changing of conferences stemming from an ongoing realignment of NCAA teams and conferences has complicated the numerous rivalries that traditionally play Thanksgiving weekend.

Of these, no current Division I FBS college football game is played on Thanksgiving Day itself. All of the current traditional Thanksgiving weekend college football games listed above are played on Friday or Saturday, although this was not the case from 1998 to 2003 or from 2008 to 2011. From 2004 to 2007 one game was generally played between two teams, neither of which had a permanent place on Thanksgiving; the 2012 ESPN schedule (ESPN has usually televised Thanksgiving-night college football games) includes one Thanksgiving game, Texas Longhorns vs. TCU Horned Frogs.