Harvard–Yale football rivalry

The Harvard–Yale football rivalry is renewed annually with The Game, an American college football match between the Harvard Crimson football team of Harvard University and the Yale Bulldogs football team of Yale University.

Though the winner does not take possession of a physical prize, the matchup is usually considered the most important and anticipated game of the year for both teams, regardless of their season records. The Game is scheduled annually as the last contest of the year for both teams; as the Ivy League does not participate in postseason play for football, The Game is the final outing for each team's graduating seniors. Some years, the rivalry carries the additional significance of deciding the Ivy League championship.

The weekend of The Game includes more than just the varsity matchup; the respective Yale residential college football teams compete against "sister" Harvard house teams the day before. The Game is third among most-played NCAA Division I football rivalries. Yale leads the series 70–61–8.

"Harvard and Yale generally duke it out in the academic arena", but geographic proximity, the history of Yale's founding and social competition between the respective student and alumni bodies animate the athletic rivalry.

Harvard football head coach Joe Restic, who held the position for 23 seasons, quipped regarding his relationship with retired Yale football head coach and National Football Foundation/College Football Hall of Fame member Carm Cozza, who held the position for 32 seasons: "Each year, we're friends for 364 days and rivals for one." The athletic rivalry is historically the second in American intercollegiate athletics, with Rutgers vs Princeton being the first, having played the first ever college football game.

The signature Harvard fight song, "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard", names Yale in the famous final stanza. The song is sung in the Harvard football locker room after a victory regardless of the opponent. The song is among six Harvard fight songs that mention Yale. "Down the Field" is Yale's signature fight song and Harvard is the named foe. The song is among five that mention Harvard. Two of the songs, "Bingo, That's the Lingo" and "Goodnight, Harvard", have been sung substituting Princeton for Harvard when appropriate. Cole Porter composed the former and Douglas Moore the latter.

The football rivalry is among the most admired rivalries on the American athletic scene. The schools and the rivalry established the template for American college football. The Game is the most prominent athletic contest between the schools and has accounted for many of either rival's best-publicized athletic feats. Sports Illustrated (College Edition) rated the athletic rivalry sixth-best among American athletic collegiate rivalries behind, in order, Alabama–Auburn, Duke–North Carolina, UCLA–USC, Army–Navy and Cal–Stanford. The football rivalry was ranked 8th among Athlon Sports's top 25 rivalries in the history of college football.