Indiana–Purdue rivalry

The Indiana–Purdue rivalry is a rivalry between the Indiana University Hoosiers and Purdue University Boilermakers, the two flagship universities in the state of Indiana. It is regarded as one of the most intense collegiate rivalries in the United States, and one of the strongest and most followed collegiate rivalries in the Big Ten Conference. Among all of college sports rivalries, Newsweek listed it among the top 12 and Huffington Post listed it as the fifth best rivalry overall.

The intensity of the rivalry is augmented by the deep passion within Indiana for basketball (see Hoosier Hysteria). Both universities have very large student bodies; Purdue is an engineering research university located in the northern portion of Indiana, while Indiana University is located in the southern portion of the state. The academic and geographic divergence of the two institutions polarizes the state of Indiana into two large fan bases.

Purdue is one of the founding members of the Big Ten and both universities have been members of the Big Ten Conference for over 100 years, ensuring yearly competition across all sports and adding conference standing implications to the rivalry.

Indiana and Purdue played against each other in men's basketball for the first time on March 2, 1901. The two teams have played at least once a year since then, and until 2001 they usually met twice a year. Purdue leads the all-time series 117–89. Purdue has won the Big 10 conference regular season title 23 times, and Indiana has won it 22. Since the Big Ten began basketball in the 1904-05 season, the schools have combined to win or share over 39% of the conference championships.

Additionally, Indiana has won 5 NCAA championships in basketball. Indiana was also voted the UPI National Champions in 1975. Purdue was retroactively awarded the 1932 Helms Foundation and Premo-Porretta Power Poll national titles. Both Indiana and Purdue have captured one post-season NIT championship; Purdue won in 1974 and Indiana won in 1979. The two teams also met in the postseason the following year in the 1980 NCAA Sweet 16, with Purdue winning on their way to the Final Four. That was their first, and only, head-to-head NCAA Tournament meeting.

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