Clear Your Calendar — Quidditch World Cup Final is This Weekend

Nothing is more American than watching Texas face hated rival Texas A&M…in Quidditch. Wait, what? Yes, there is a league for Quidditch, the once-fictional game popularized by the Harry Potter series. Muggle Quidditch was first developed at Middlebury College in Vermont, but it has since spread to other schools, many of which will compete at the Quidditch World Cup in Kissimmee, Fla. this weekend.

Texas A&M, Texas and UCLA are among the best known schools in the International Quidditch Association (IQA) rankings, but institutions like Emerson College, McGill University and Tufts also crack the Top 20. As Quidditch is not regulated by the NCAA (yet), teams don't even need to be affiliated with a school to play in the IQA's world cup.

Texas A&M and Texas rank as the No. 1 and No. 2 schools, respectively, in the IQA standings. The two in-state rivals no longer meet on the football field after Texas A&M joined the Southeastern Conference in 2012, but they could meet on the Quidditch pitch/field/range. While there's no way Quidditch will ever replace football in Texas lore, at least it can give people a reason to learn the sign for "Hook'em, Harry!"