Derek Jeter Compares College Football Rivalry To Red Sox-Yankees

The Boston Red Sox rivalry with the New York Yankees was reignited this season when the two teams met up in the 2025 MLB Playoffs. While the Yankees got the best of the Red Sox this time around, eliminating them in their wild-card matchup, the Sox have had the Yanks’ number quite a bit over the past few years.

The last time New York had an advantage over Boston in this rivalry was when guys like Derek Jeter were still playing. Jeter spent his entire 20-year career playing for the Yankees, and he was frequently a thorn in the Red Sox’s side.

In the eyes of many sports fans, the rivalry between the Sox and Yanks is one of the best in all of professional sports. Jeter agrees with that notion, but he also believes that the rivalries between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA, and the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines in college football, are on the same level.

“It’s up there,” Jeter said of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry on “Big Noon Kickoff.” “You talk about rivalries, you’ve got Yankees-Red Sox, you’ve got Lakers-Celtics, and you’ve got Michigan-Ohio State. This is as big as it gets.”

For a point in time, the Celtics-Lakers rivalry carried the NBA, and players still get up for that game to this day, with both teams emerging as championship contenders. Ohio State and Michigan, meanwhile, have been playing against each other since all the way back in 1897.

And yet, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry may just have more history than both of these great rivalries. That’s a debate for another day, but it’s interesting to see Jeter’s perspective on what other rivalries stack up since he spent his entire career partaking in some fierce battles between Boston and New York.