re: Where do you rank the Iron Bowl among the greatest rivalries in sports?

Lakers-Celtics is more of an "echo" of a rivalry from another era rather then an active one. Since the era of free agency in the 1980's, there's just not enough continuity of the teams anymore for this to resonate. The NBA is now more a league where players are the star rather then the teams per se. Fans follow players as much as teams.

Army-Navy is just too peripheral to major college sports to really be relevant as a rivalry. It's more a ode to when those teams were the best in college 75 years ago.

In general, none of American pro sports have intense rivalries anymore like they used to. All major leagues kind of promote the league brand and fan friendly imaging. It undermines the kind of bitter rivals of yesteryear.

Alabama-auburn is by far the most intense rivalry in American sports. It's the only thing that resembles the kind of animosity and passion you see in European soccer. It's different then OSU-UM, where the people aren't in proximity and there are competing college and pro sports and other teams for interest in the region. Literally you find the UA-AU rivalry discussed 365 days a year here, which just doesn't happen with any of these other games.