Where does UT-UF rank in the pantheon of SEC rivalries?

#26
#26
If you only know the last 20 years of SEC football:

#1 - Iron Bowl
#2 - UGa - Auburn
#3 - LSU - Bama

If you know the last 40 years of conference play:

#1 - Iron Bowl and Vols-Gators (tie)
#2 - LSU - Florida
#3 - UGa - Auburn (but meh, never really decided anything)

If you can remember 50 to 60 years of SEC football:

#1 - Vols-Tide
#2 - Auburn - Bama
#3 - UGa - Auburn

If you could travel back in time to the first few
decades of the conference:

#1 - Vandy-Vols (you read that right)
#2 - Bama-Auburn
#3 - Kentucky-Vols

All that to say, what's most important depends on when you're asking, and how long your memory is.

Go Vols!
 
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#27
#27
unfrozencvmanvol said:
There was a time, roughly a decade, (1992-2001) where the championship of the SEC East went through this game. Many memorable games during that stretch and some before and since. I think clearly the rivalry would rank below:

UT-Bama, Bama-Aub and Aub-UGA, but everything else is up for reasonable debate.
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Pretty low. Not much history, not border states, so the fans don't interact nearly as much as others, and it's been mostly Florida in the last 20 years. It was a big game because of the creation of divisions and the two teams being the best in the East in the 90s. But divisions are about to go away and they haven't been the top teams in the East for awhile.

The Third Saturday in October is a true rivalry. The Cocktail Party. The Iron Bowl.

Tennessee-Florida was just the result of the two teams being good together for a short stretch and them having a coach who liked to tweak our noses.
 
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#28
#28
Lawrence Wright said:
Iron Bowl
LSU-Bama
UT-Bama
AU-UGA
UF-UGA

Our rivalry was fun in the 90s when the stakes were high for both teams every year, but historically I think it falls outside the SEC’s Top 5.
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I’d put FL GA ahead of Auburn UGA, otherwise I agree.
 
#31
#31
As others have said, this particular rivalry depends almost exclusively on whether both teams stand to gain/lose a lot that year.
 
#32
#32
VFL-82-JP said:
If you only know the last 20 years of SEC football:

#1 - Iron Bowl
#2 - UGa - Auburn
#3 - LSU - Bama

If you know the last 40 years of conference play:

#1 - Iron Bowl and Vols-Gators (tie)
#2 - LSU - Florida
#3 - UGa - Auburn (but meh, never really decided anything)

If you can remember 50 to 60 years of SEC football:

#1 - Vols-Tide
#2 - Auburn - Bama
#3 - UGa - Auburn

If you could travel back in time to the first few
decades of the conference:

#1 - Vandy-Vols (you read that right)
#2 - Bama-Auburn
#3 - Kentucky-Vols

All that to say, what's most important depends on when you're asking, and how long your memory is.

Go Vols!
Click to expand...
What he said
 
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#34
#34
To all y’all who claim to be UT fans but put the TSIO below the Iron Bowl: we can no longer be friends.

Red River and “The Game” are the only two rivalries in the country that belong in the same conversation as the TSIO.
 
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#35
#35
Vol in Buckeye Land said:
To all y’all who claim to be UT fans but put the TSIO below the Iron Bowl: we can no longer be friends.

Red River and “The Game” are the only two rivalries in the country that belong in the same conversation as the TSIO.
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No friend here. I grew up in Alabama and kids had to declare their allegiance to either Auburn or Alabama in the first grade. That state completely shuts down on Iron Bowl Saturday. It was especially evident when they would split Legion Field down the middle and declare war. There is a reason the major networks always headline that game.

The TSIO has often been regulated to secondary time slots due to Alabama’s dominance of the series. I personally am an old timer and think our major rival is Alabama and I attended the game the last time the series was tied, 1970 when we blew them out 24-0. But this state does not shut down for that series like the Iron Bowl does.

As an old timer I have never considered Florida as a rival, even with the Doug Dickey issues. I think substituting Auburn for Florida was a huge mistake for our standing in the SEC. There were many more connections between UT and Auburn at that time due to the sharing of academic paths. UT grads would go to Auburn for vet school and Auburn grads would come to UT for our graduate agricultural programs and professional schools that Auburn, a technical university, did not offer. Hence, in those days there were many inter-marriages between the programs and students.
 
#36
#36
Vol in Buckeye Land said:
To all y’all who claim to be UT fans but put the TSIO below the Iron Bowl: we can no longer be friends.

Red River and “The Game” are the only two rivalries in the country that belong in the same conversation as the TSIO.
Click to expand...
To me you gotta throw Army-Navy in there when you are talking about the country. That's actually probably # 1 overall. The game is just so pure.
 
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#37
#37
unfrozencvmanvol said:
There was a time, roughly a decade, (1992-2001) where the championship of the SEC East went through this game. Many memorable games during that stretch and some before and since. I think clearly the rivalry would rank below:

UT-Bama, Bama-Aub and Aub-UGA, but everything else is up for reasonable debate.
Click to expand...

Top 10 rivalry in the SEC currently and when the long losing streak in the Swamp is snapped, then it moves up to the top 5.
 
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