The Houston–Rice rivalry is a crosstown college rivalry between the Houston Cougars of the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

and Rice Owls of Rice University. The universities are located approximately five miles from one another. It is one of the few

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I crosstown rivalries, especially between institutions that field Division I

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

teams. The rivalry existed in a more official capacity after Houston joined the now-defunct

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

in 1971, in which Rice was a charter member. Since the breakup of that conference in 1995, the rivalry has continued. In 2005, Rice joined

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

, of which Houston was a member, and again made the rivalry more relevant for conference titles as well. The two schools were once again in separate conferences after the 2012–13 school year once Houston joined the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

Baseball

The winner of the Silver Glove series between UH and Rice receives an award dubbed the "Silver Cup Trophy". The teams played against each other for the first time in 1948. Through the 2022 season, Rice leads the series 109–85. Both teams compete in the annual

Houston College Classic The Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic is an annual six-team college baseball tournament held in Houston and hosted by the Astros Foundation. The 15th annual tournament was held at Minute Maid Park in March 2015. It was initially cal ...

, which began in 2001.

Men's basketball

Since 2002, Rice and Houston have competed for an award dubbed the "Bayou Cup" in men's basketball. The series between the teams exists with Houston leading 65–18.

Game results

Rankings are from the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

released prior to the game.

Notes

^A 1978 Southwest Conference men's basketball tournament
^B 1980 Southwest Conference men's basketball tournament
^C

1984 Southwest Conference men's basketball tournament The 1984 Southwest Conference men's basketball tournament was held March 9-11, 1984 at The Summit in Houston, Texas. The first round took place March 6 at the higher seeded campus sites. Number 1 seed Houston defeated 2 seed Arkansas 57-56 to w ...

^D 1990 Southwest Conference men's basketball tournament
^E 2007 Conference USA men's basketball tournament
^F

2013 Conference USA men's basketball tournament The 2013 Conference USA men's basketball tournament was held at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma from March 13–16, 2013. Memphis was slated to host the 2013 edition but the conference moved it to Tulsa in order to keep Memphis from having hom ...

Football

Robertson Stadium scoreboard before Bayou Bucket

The football rivalry, sometimes referred to as the Bayou Bucket Classic, is the longest running competition between the two institutions. Both teams are part of the NCAA's Division I

. The first official game between the teams was played in 1971 when Houston joined the now-defunct

of which Rice was also a member. The teams previously met in a 1946 scrimmage marking Houston's inaugural season. For many years the competition included an annual regular-season football game between the schools. The winner of the game receives the Bayou Bucket, which is a full-sized trophy with a golden bucket on top. Although the last Southwest Conference football game was part of the series, the teams did not compete against each other in football from 1996 to 1998 and from 2014 to 2016. However, they still play as non-conference foes as future schedules allow. Houston leads this series 33–11 through the 2022 season.

Game results

Rankings are from the

released prior to the game.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston-Rice rivalry College football rivalries in the United States College basketball rivalries in the United States College baseball rivalries in the United States College sports rivalries in the United States Houston Cougars Rice Owls