Another Reason I Love College Football

The fans' "us or them" attitudes.

Auburn fans are mad at me.  Apparently I'm a "bammer".  Mmmmm nope.

I like both schools but Auburn has the honor of having given me a lot more material of late.  There's no special attachment to either although as I've noted before I consider Alabama one of college football's Holy Trinity.  That's no mark on Auburn but rather recognition of Alabama's unique place in the college football world.  Disagree if you want I won't take it personally. 

Comments

[Kevin @ Fanblogs]

I feel ya. I can't tell you how many times I've been "tagged", as I'm sure you have too. It's crazy. I love it.

[Gabe Harris]

Auburn fan here. I'm not mad at you. You have a good website that I've been reading for over a year now. I'm relieved that some still consider bama to be in the holy trinity(Bama, Notre Dame and Michigan? or Oklahoma? or USC?). Yes I think Bama will eventually be competitive again; the 5 game streak may end at 6, 7 or 8 but hopefully tubby will surpass the Bear's 9 game streak.

I understand our offense was crappy this year, but make no mistake our defense and special teams was as good or better than Florida's or LSU's(that is why we beat them). Auburn's defense was also much much better than Ohio State's or Michigan or Notre Dame. If you watch the games you'd know this. It is for this reason that you are a dunse to think that Notre Dame or Rutgers is better than Auburn, but nevermind the true Auburn fan bitterness comes from 2004 and 1983. Each year Auburn got screwed....all that don't see it are biased or ignorant. All of the extraneuos bitterness that you see from Auburn fans stems from those two facts...it causes many Auburn fans to over react to opinions that are quite reasonable when looked at objectively.

Hell what difference does it make that auburn is ranked just behind rutgers and notre dame in your poll, when clearly biased fans Auburn should be ahead of those lightwieghts? USC had two horrible losses to teams ranked far below Georgia and Arkansas yet they are #2 or #3. Auburn beat better teams than USC even by your own admission.

why get so mad about being ranked 18th instead of 13th? Next time we think we should be ranked #2(like in 2004), the same big 11, big 12 and pac 10 fans are going to have us ranked anywhere beteween 3rd and 6th. That is the crazy horror show fear that you are seeing exhibited through bitter emails. Is it ridiculous? yes! wwhy should we care so much? it doesn't make us lose games, just as much jack daniels and beer will be consumed on saturdays, just as many pretty girls will come to the games either way. Michigan and USC and even Bama fans are gonna think they are better either way.

but college football fans still go on caring. I think that extra passion for the game si what makes it fun for me to watch. The players grow up seeing how much people care and they pour their whole lives into trying to be the best...it is dramatic to watch.

WAAAR EAGLE!!

[Ltrain]

"all that don't see it are biased or ignorant." - Gabe, you makes some good points but this is where the Auburn fandom begins to stretch away from reality, and honest factual discussion on these topics becomes difficult.
Yes, some people are biased, and yes, some are ignorant, but there were legitimate reasons that Auburn didn't make that game - the general consensus prior to the game was that the 2 best teams were playing, with most people thinking Oklahoma was going to win; only when Oklahoma got rolled did you begin hearing cries (from other than Auburn fans) about Auburn being in that game. There's some revisionist history going on here.
When comparing schedules, Auburn's game against the Citadel really hurt their strength of schedule that year - Not Auburn's fault as this was a replacement game, but it is reality, not ignorance or bias to point this out. Further, roughly the same Auburn and USC teams played the year before, and Auburn got rolled at home, again, a fact, not ignorance or bias.
(I don't think this should have been a factor, but it did contribute to the pre-game expectations as to Auburn's claim to be in that game).
Your low ranking to start the 2004 year was a direct result of high expectations the year before, in 2003, a top 5 pre-season ranking, followed by a clearly underachieving five loss season. Tubberville had done nothing to that point to indicate that Auburn deserved a higher preseason ranking in '04.
Would Auburn have been a better matchup with USC? Probably, but it is purely conjecture and mainly post hoc, after the fact analysis that leads to that conclusion, and not necessarily ignorance or bias that leads to alternative conjecture.
P.S. One of the great things about this sport is that this can still be a great topic of debate/discussion
P.P.S. Auburn did not have a better defense than Florida this year. Auburn beat Florida because Auburn's defense and special teams were better than Florida's counterparts during important parts of that particular game, but Florida's Offense still scored on Auburn's defense...a claim the Auburn offense can't reciprocally make.
http://www.secsports.com/new/sports/fbc/06stats/confldrs.htm
The difference isn't huge, mind you, but the only category where Auburn had a defensive advantage is total pass defense, though Florida was better in pass efficiency. Florida ranked higher in total defense, run defense, scoring defense, etc.

[Burrill]

Gabe does make a good point:

"but college football fans still go on caring. I think that extra passion for the game si what makes it fun for me to watch."

This sort of is passion is one of the really amazing things about college football.

[patrick]

you baited me and i posted..gave you something to talk about. damn..gotta love being set up.

[patrick]

still no reply to the herby thread??? you are fairly clever..but still a joke...now quick, go create a new auburn slam to get us country folk all fired up.

[patrick]

"The difference isn't huge, mind you, but the only category where Auburn had a defensive advantage is total pass defense, though Florida was better in pass efficiency. Florida ranked higher in total defense, run defense, scoring defense, etc"

that..and the scoreboard,

[Mark]

High comedy. SEC fans are the only ones I know of who have a superiority complex AND an inferiority complex. "We're the best at everything and you're not allowed to argue" meets "Everybody looks down at us, why are they so mean to us?!?" The comments from the people saying that your whole site is pro-Alabama are the best. I will say I've noticed regular baiting of the SEC in general, but that's a welcome diversion from the conventional wisdom of the WWL that automatically crowns the conference as best in show with no debate possible. Auburn doesn't get picked on any worse than any of the other upper tier teams in the conference, Patrick's diatribes notwithstanding. I would think that TSOBO would laugh at the idea that this is just a front for a Crimson Tide homer.

[patrick]

more of a problem with auburn than a tide homer i'd say.