Cole Cubelic slams Red River Rivalry among pantheon of SEC rivalries

The SEC isn’t only adding Oklahoma and Texas, it’s adding the rivalry between the two. The Red River Rivalry will now join the ranks of other storied rivalries in the SEC, including the Iron Bowl [Alabama and Auburn] and the Egg Bowl [Ole Miss and Mississippi State]

Despite the vast history between the two schools, ESPN’s Cole Cubelic isn’t convinced the Red River Rivalry is among the best rivalries in the SEC. At the 2024 SEC Media Days, Cubelic made his case against the Red River Rivalry.

“The Iron Bowl is No. 1 and the Egg Bowl is No. 2,” Cubelic said. “There’s not a game that brings more hatred on an annual basis than the Egg Bowl. All the other teams that you just mentioned have played for college football playoff berths, BCS championships, conference championship games. You know who hasn’t: Ole Miss and Mississippi State. It’s not a knock on them. But what that does is elevate that game to meaning more to everyone in that state.

“I don’t give a damn what fried foods you have,” Cubelic said of the Red River Rivalry. “I don’t care if you have a 68-foot tall paper mache cowboy. I don’t care because none of that has to do with football. What has to do with football is how much you can’t speak to your relatives for the next 365 days because you lost that game. And you skipped school on Monday because you lost that football game… That’s what makes a rivalry, not a fried Twinkie, not a fried Oreo, not a giant clown cowboy.”

The history behind the SEC’s top rivalries

Despite Cubelic’s claims, the Red River rivalry runs just as deep as any other rivalry in the SEC. Texas and Oklahoma have met 119 total times, including their first showdown in 1900. The Iron Bowl has not been nearly as consistent and the Egg Bowl is not as old.

However, the other two rivalry games have something the Red River Showdown does not: alternating hosts. Every year, the Red River Showdown occurs in the Cotton Bowl inside Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. Meanwhile, the other two rivalries take turns playing at their respective home fields.

Cubelic believes that factor alone pushes the other two rivalries over top of the Red River Showdown.

“It’s more important going back and forth,” Cubelic said. “I loved walking into Bryant-Denny Stadium for the first time in over 100 years to play in the Iron Bowl. I took my children to their first college football game ever last year in Auburn Alabama.

“I had to go comfort ugly tears from my eight-year old daughter after the game and it is one of the best college football memories I have in my life because I saw my children fall in love with Auburn football. I don’t care about the damn score of the game. That’s the meaning that it has to me.”