The Colgate–Cornell football rivalry is an Americancollege footballrivalry between the Colgate Raiders and the Cornell Big Red. The two teams have met 101 times since their first meeting in 1896, and Colgate–Cornell was the 17th most-played college football rivalry as of 2013. Cornell has played Colgate in football more times than any other opponent except Ivy League rivals Penn and Columbia. The series is tied 49–49–3, but Colgate has won 29 of 35 meetings since 1980.
History
, located in Madison County, New York, and Cornell University, located in Tompkins County, New York, are less than 100 miles from each other. Their close proximity and membership in rivalathletic conferences contribute to the rivalry between the two schools. The Colgate and Cornell football teams met for the first time in Ithaca on September 26, 1896, a game that ended in a 6–0 victory for Cornell. Cornell would go on to win or tie the next 13 meetings until Colgate clinched its first win in the series, 13–7, in 1912. Cornell continued to dominate the series, compiling a 29–7–2 record against Colgate through 1951. Colgate took 9 of 13 meetings from 1952 through 1964, after which Cornell returned to dominance, winning 8 of 10 from 1965 through 1974. Since then, Colgate has held the advantage in the series, but Cornell's early dominance has rendered the all-time series record nearly even. The game is usually played in late September or early October and has alternated between Colgate's Andy Kerr Stadium in Hamilton, New York, and Cornell's Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, New York, since 2009. The rivalry has been largely uninterrupted from its beginning in 1896, but the teams did not meet in 1909–10, 1915–16, 1918, and 1924–36. The Colgate–Cornell game has been annual since 1937, save for four exceptions in 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2012. Of the teams' more notable meetings, Colgate was Cornell's opponent when Cornell played its first-ever Friday night home game in 2015, which Colgate won 28–21. In 2016, the Big Red defeated the nationally-ranked Raiders in Hamilton, 39–38, after having trailed 28–5; it was the first time Cornell defeated a ranked team on the road since 1950.
