The biggest rivalry news of 2009-10 is that the rivalry in college hoops isn't so hot -- at least in relation to its own molten standards.
Duke-North Carolina will still make a whole lot of people hyperventilate when they play two or more times this season. But not the way basketball fans will lose it in the state of Kentucky (when Louisville plays the Wildcats) or in other parts of the Southeastern Conference (when Tennessee plays Kentucky) or in the Big Ten (when Michigan State plays Purdue). Right now there are at least three rivalries you have to rank ahead of the annual Blueblood/Eight Miles Apart/Roy versus K hypefest.
Simply put, that rivalry hasn't been competitive enough in recent years. And the two teams probably aren't as good as recent vintage, either. Which is why this is a fine time for sporting America to broaden its regular-season scope beyond Tobacco Road and notice the red-hot rivalries that will be burning down the house elsewhere.
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