When you enter the Palestra and look above the east basket, you see flags representing the Big 5 schools. While Penn has created great rivalries with Villanova, Saint Joseph's, Temple and La Salle, it is the Philadelphia school without a flag that Penn should have its greatest rivalry with.
Drexel is not just another Philadelphia school; its campus borders Penn's.
Many of the country's greatest rivalries have grown out of geographic conflict or proximity: Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma, Yankees-Mets, Auburn-Alabama and Duke-North Carolina to name just a few.
The Penn-Drexel rivalry is not about to be the next coming of the Hatfields and McCoys, but this rivalry deserves a new level of intensity. We hear about Tobacco Road all the time, but how many Division I basketball programs can boast that they play a mere three blocks from each other? On the same street?
Most rivalries are based on time and experience, of which this rivalry has had little. Penn is 14-4 all time against Drexel. In fact, Penn has played Drexel 35 fewer times than any other Big 5 opponent and 92 times fewer than any Ivy rival.
While time will make this rivalry better, giving it a name will instantly enhance its allure. The battle for University City does not have a great ring to it, but the fight for 33rd Street carries some allure.
A large part of the problem is that the basketball games have been played in the Palestra almost every year. Penn has hosted the matchup the last 10 years. The 8,700 seat historic Palestra is clearly a much better arena than the 2,500 seat high-school gym that is the Daskalakis Athletic Center.
Penn must begin to schedule the games in alternating venues. While the Palestra and the DAC are a mere five blocks away from each other on 33rd Street, they are further apart psychologically. Most Penn students probably would not walk to the DAC, and it is not surprising Drexel students don't walk en masse to the Palestra. Holding the game at each other's home court every other year would go a long way toward creating greater interest in both student bodies.
Scheduling will become less of an issue when Drexel finally takes complete control of the Armory Convocation Center on the other side of Market Street. The renovated facility will hold about 5,000 fans.
Beyond the home venue, this is and should be a great basketball rivalry because of the product on the court. The Colonial Athletic Conference and Ivy League are both mid-major conferences (granted, the CAA saw a Final Four team in George Mason last year).
Penn is always at the forefront of the Ivy League and Drexel has built a solid program under coach Bruiser Flint. Many experts have tagged the Dragons as potential winners of the CAA this season. Both teams play challenging schedules, and a win against each other can be potentially meaningful for entering or seeding in the NCAA tournament. Drexel had the 84th best strength of schedule last year.
In the end, this rivalry is less about basketball and facilities than the opinion of each student body about the other. Penn students stereotypically ignore Drexel as something that is just there while Drexel students view Penn as full of pretentious Ivy League snots.
A successful basketball rivalry may never heal the divide, but it will certainly make the schools take greater interest in their neighbors. That can only be a good thing for attendance, basketball and University City.
Matt Meltzer is a senior political science major from Glen Rock, N.J. His e-mail
address is meltzerm@sas.upenn.edu.
