One of my writing idols, Spencer Hall, wrote a really fun piece about what makes a rivalry in college football. The basic ingredients, he says, are these:

  1. They need to have been created or relevant in the last five years.
  2. The exception to Rule Number One is if a game was decided by some kind of insane play, like the Kick Six between Auburn and Alabama a few years ago. That one will burn for a long time.
  3. The rivalry has to have been competitive in the last few years, i.e., the games have to either have been close, or the teams must have exchanged blowouts.
  4. There needs to be some fighting, scrapping, personal fouls, ejections, things of that ilk.
  5. The games need to matter.

I figure those principles probably apply to most other sports, too. Professional sports usually have more longevity attached to them compared to college sports, i.e., players theoretically can stay with a team for more than four years. However, in this context, we’re talking about the USL, where entire rosters sometimes disappear, so I guess it works.

The Purples play St. Louis tomorrow in the U.S. Open Cup. St. Louis is Louisville City’s original “rival,” though there’s not much, if any, real animosity between either team or fanbase. If you evaluate the rivalry using Hall’s rubric up there, it doesn’t really qualify once you get to Numbers 3, 4, and 5. St. Louis has only beaten Morados once in eight matches. I remember some issue with James Musa and some hard fouls once, but I don’t think there’s really ever been much bad blood between players. The outcome of a LouCity/STL game has never had much impact on either team in the standings or playoffs.

So it’s not really a rivalry. But it IS fun, and that’s why we look forward to playing the Chupacabras when we can.