Every college football season is going to be packed with passion, intrigue and plenty of reasons to tune-in every single Saturday. But while rivalries are renewed every season, one thing that does change from year-to-year is revenge.
We spend 12 months talking and thinking about a sport that plays just 12 regular season games, so the weight of one result far exceeds what we see in other sports. There are occasional rematches in a season, even for the national championship, but in many cases when a game goes poorly for one side that team, and all of its fans, have to wait a year until they get a chance to get some revenge.
We've scanned the 2022 schedule in hopes to identify some of the biggest revenge game spots. In eight of the 10 games mentioned — five featured, five honorable mention — the team looking for revenge will be at home, creating an intense and passionate environment with thousands of fans antsy to celebrate after spending all year holding that "L." Another common thread through the five games featured is how 2021 included a lot of streak-snapping wins, which then sets the stage not only for revenge but a win that could make last season's defeat look like an anomaly in the series. Finally, we tried not to get too hung up on traditional rivalries but revenge is an emotional thing and nothing is more emotional than college football rivalries.
Speaking of emotion, we start at No. 1 not with a traditional rivalry but certainly a rivalry that has continued off the field, on the recruiting trail and in front of microphones and cameras.