When I first heard about the annual rivalry known as the Battle of Murder Creek, my brow wrinkled.

That doesn’t happen often.

The showdown pits two teams from the Brewton area — W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller — together in a game that’s talked about for 365 days until the next match up.

Even though the football season is over, the rivalry is now in the running to be named the nation’s top high school competition.

In fact, as of Wednesday morning, the Battle of Murder Creek nested a total of 182,418 votes to win the South Regional.

They beat the Kentucky rivalry between Trinity and St. Xavier by a mere 3 percent, according to The Brewton Standard’s Facebook page.

The regional winners advance to compete in the Final Four against the other three regional winners. Voting for the best national rivalry will begin at 11 a.m. EST today and will end on Wednesday at 11 a.m. EST. Voters may vote as many times as they please.

For the past 70 contests between T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal, the team from Brewton (T.R. Miller) holds a 49-21 advantage over the team from East Brewton (W.S. Neal).

In the most recent showdown between the two, WSN beat TRM 34-26 to solidify the No. 2 seed going into the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs.

The Tigers already won their region championship and had the No. 1 seed.

Coincidentally, both teams finished their seasons in the second round as WSN fell to Fayette County and TRM to Midfield. Additionally, Straughn and Opp were also in Region 1 with WSN and TRM.

You might be asking, why are we reading about a rivalry that doesn’t concern any of our local teams?

I’m writing this as a call to arms to help the Battle of Murder Creek win out as the nation’s top rivalry.

The winner will receive $10,000 to be divided equally between the athletic departments of each school.

Additionally, USA Today sports will report live on the rivalry game next season. A trophy will be presented to the schools that will be kept each year by the winning team.

To vote, visit http://contest.usatodayhss.com/vote/final.

I may sound like a politician when I say this, but go vote.

And heck, vote a few more times while you’re at it.