Matthew Reichert ’28
Staff Writer
The Holy Cross football team’s first home game is Saturday, September 13 against Rhode Island and I’m trying to get excited about it. But, every time I attempt to look forward to the beginning of this season, I end up thinking back to last year and end up mildly apathetic. I don’t know if you recall any HC home games last year (not the tailgates, the actual games) but I do.
Most of my recollections feature a few stragglers wandering aimlessly about the student section as I sat near the top of the stands, flanked only by a man in his mid-sixties pacing back and forth as he yelled at opposing kickers who could definitely hear him because the rest of the student section was so empty. Not exactly OSU-Michigan.
Why don’t HC students get excited about the football season? What are we missing? I think I have the answer: Holy Cross needs a rival. A rival provides a foil, a point of comparison. A rival is a reason to care about each week of football. Your investment will be rewarded either by extreme joy or extreme disappointment based on what happens in that final game of the Season, set against the team you’ve been thinking about all year.
Army versus Charlotte may not be an interesting game, but if you’re a Black Knights fan, it is an interesting thing if Army looks as good in that game as Navy does when they play an equally bad team. A rival gives the season meaning. Right now Holy Cross lacks a true rival. We only play BC every few years, Lafayette and Lehigh are already rivals with each other, and in the cases of Georgetown, Colgate, Bucknell, and Fordham, it’s only a rivalry if the other team wins sometimes.
However, do not fear. The Patriot League has just absorbed three new teams. Let’s evaluate each, and see if any of them have the qualities of a true Holy Cross rival that can energize the fans and revitalize Saturdays at Fitton Field.
Villanova (2026 Patriot League Entrant):
What makes Villanova interesting are the many things we have in common with them. Similarity breeds rivalry because both teams are trying to be the best version of what they have in common. Example: Mets versus Yankees is so exciting because they are both competing to be the best team in New York City. Holy Cross and Villanova are both northeastern Catholic schools that are run by religious orders that have produced one of the last two popes. Villanova also checks off the competitiveness box: they have won an FCS national title and in each of the past two years they have won ten games. Even the image of a Crusader versus a Wildcat paints an exciting picture.
Rival Potential: 7/10
William and Mary (2026 Patriot League Entrant):
In the same way a great rivalry can be about similarity, differences can be equally strong fodder for conflict. Celtics-Lakers, Yankees-Dodgers, Notre Dame-USC – these are all great rivalries because of all the things these teams don’t have in common. The Crusaders and The Tribe are very different. One is North, the other South; one is a private liberal arts college, the other a public research university; one is good at football and the other isn’t. That last part is where we run into problems because, for all the differences between the teams in the aforementioned great rivalries, they do share one similarity: they compete for championships. William and Mary does not; if anything, they go 4-4 in their conference (as they have the past two years). Holy Cross on the other hand has won or tied for the past six Patriot League Titles.
Rival Potential: 4/10
The University of Richmond (2025 Patriot League Entrant):
We focused on similarities with Villanova and we’ve focused on differences with William and Mary. Perhaps, Richmond could be our “goldilocks” that finds just the right balance and makes a truly competitive rivalry. The Red Sox and the Yankees share a division, a region, and Babe Ruth. However, Boston and New York are certainly distinct. That mix is what makes it the greatest rivalry in American sports. Holy Cross and Richmond are separated by the Mason-Dixon line, but they are similar in their education (liberal arts) and in their inception (both religiously founded less than twenty years apart, though Richmond is now secular). Most importantly, they are both good football teams. Richmond, like Holy Cross, won their conference last year. These two teams will meet on October 18; that game may very well decide which team gets to repeat as champs. It may also, hopefully, be the beginning of a real rivalry.
Rival Potential: 8/10
Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics
Copy Edited by Sophia Olbrysh ’28
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