I figured the Caps would be your top rival given division-sharing history, and, you know, Ovie.
Let's also not forget the rivalry in college hoops that USED to exist between Maryland and Duke which represent the same metro areas (a rivalry killed by college conference realignment, the Terps are now in the Big Ten).
The Canes in fact are the only Metro Division team you could say are not in or close to (in the case of NYI and NYR) Big Ten Country. NC is firmly ACC territory, what with four schools in the conference and all. I'm even advocating the ACC and Cincinnati and UConn so that geographic football divisions could be had (and thus the four NC schools would then share a football division). But that's another subject.
I firmly believe that Columbus and Carolina can become the class of the Metro. Small-market teams have succeeded in other sports, like the Packers of the NFL. The one thing both of those teams will need to do very often is to beat Pittsburgh and Washington. That will go a long way towards the Canes and Jackets getting to the top of the Metro.
