This week, the Women's College World Series brings to center stage one of the best rivalries in college sports: the Red River rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas.
With Texas ranked No. 1 and Oklahoma ranked No. 2, and the four previous editions of the rivalry this season split 2-2 with an average margin of victory of 2.25 runs, the championship series will be a classic. It will also be déjà vu for both teams: The Sooners and Longhorns met in the 2022 World Series, and Oklahoma won the title for the second in a streak of three consecutive national championships.
The 2022 Softball title game rematch is another recent example of college rivals competing on the biggest stages. Here are some other Division I rivalry games that have had multiple editions of championships since 2000.
Georgia vs. Alabama
Sport: Soccer
Years: 2022, 2018
Perennial college football powerhouses, two of the last three SEC championships have featured a matchup between the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide. The Alabama-Georgia rivalry has also appeared on sports' biggest stage: the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Since its debut in 2014, all but one edition of the College Football Playoff has featured the Bulldogs or the Crimson Tide. The SEC powers made the playoffs together twice, and both times ended in a showdown against each other for the national title.
Alabama took the first of the two matchups in 2017-18, thanks to Tua Tagovailoa's second-half heroics. Georgia would get its revenge four years later, with a 20-point fourth quarter and a 33-18 victory in 2021-22.
LSU vs. Florida
Sport: Baseball
Years: 2023, 2017
The decisive battle of last spring's Men's College World Series between Florida and LSU was wild. The first game was a 4-3 thriller that required 11 innings to separate the SEC foes, and the next two games ended with a combined winning margin of 34 runs.
The Tigers roared louder in Game 3, racking up 24 hits in an 18-4 victory. The victory capped LSU's first appearance in a championship series since the Gators won the 2017 title with a 2-0 series victory against the Tigers.
Wisconsin vs. Minnesota
Sport: women's hockey
Years: 2019, 2012, 2006
The battle for Paul Bunyan's ax is the most played rivalry in FBS, but the showdown in the Midwest may be even more intense on the ice. The Badgers and Gophers have played for the national title three times since the NCAA debuted the women's Frozen Four in 2001.
Minnesota was the first of the two schools to claim a title with a 6-2 win over Harvard in 2004, but Wisconsin has a 2-1 advantage in head-to-head matchups for the national championship, including a 2-0 win in the most recent such matchup in 2019.
Virginia vs. Maryland
Sport: men's lacrosse
Years: 2021, 2011
Maryland and Virginia may not share a conference like some of the other rivals on this list, but the DMV feud simmers, especially in men's lacrosse, where the two schools have met twice in the national title game .
The Cavaliers trail in their overall series against Maryland, which has been played a whopping 97 times, but boast a 2-0 record in national championship games. The most recent win came in 2021, when Virginia defeated the top-ranked Terrapins thanks to four goals each from Matt Moore and Connor Shellenberger.
USC vs. UCLA
Sport: Beach volleyball
Years: 2024, 2023, 2021, 2019
The most recently added NCAA championship, beach volleyball's first national title game, came in 2016. However, it didn't take long for cross-town foes UCLA and USC to engage in a highly competitive rivalry , with several matchups on the sport's biggest stage.
Four of the last five beach volleyball national championship games have fallen to the Bruins and Trojans. USC, which last month won its fourth consecutive national title, has a 3-1 record when the two Los Angeles schools meet in the finals.
