College Football & Priorities

It was 2003 and the Auburn Tigers were rated in the top 5 coming into the football season. In what would be a disappointing season in a lot of ways, Auburn went 8-5 on the year. 

The Ole Miss game was towards the end of the year. Trailing 24-20 against the Eli Manning led team, Auburn took the ball all the way to the Ole Miss 9 or 10 yard line, where one of our receivers dropped a wide open (and I mean wide open!) pass in the end zone for the go ahead touchdown. 

I’ll have you know I’m a pretty big guy with a deep enough voice and I let out this yelp that did not befit a man of my stature; like some big, wounded animal. Auburn went on to lose that game but the lesson I learned more than anything, from that game in particular is: I had to stop taking Auburn football so seriously. Auburn football is not going to kill me. Since then I have leveled off my passion level that I’m not shouting and jumping up and down at all points of the game. Mostly. Majority of the time. That’s remained the same until last year where a different kind of test occurred for me.

Last year Auburn’s biggest rival, Alabama, made it to the college football playoffs despite losing decisively to Auburn, despite not winning the Western  division as a result, and despite not winning a conference title as a result of not even qualifying. Because they’re the most talented team on paper with an additional week of rest, to boot, they won a title where they never should have been invited to compete.

While I didn’t let out a yelp that did not befit a man of my stature I was upset enough about this that I considered dropping my season tickets to Auburn and severely limiting my watching of college football. As presently constructed the playoff system is rigged where the hottest “named” or “traditional” team always gets an invite with no set criteria on how they earned it. To me, it’s dishonest and it made me disgusted enough to want to drop it nearly altogether.

My wife, Miranda, reminded me that there are other reason I have season tickets to Auburn besides the results of a football game. These games are almost backdrop to being able to see friends who I’m not able to see any other time of the year for any variety of reasons. Last year alone I saw two different groups of friends and had an absolute blast; that life affirming type of fun where you can appreciate that it’s happening even as it’s happening with people you love and care for. Even more awesome is that in meeting those friends I ran into other friends too! Miranda was right; I bought season tickets for this year and sure enough I’ll be meeting some old friends from Air Force ROTC during Auburn’s first home game. I now fully see what the true point of these games is.

---days later---

Auburn played their first game of the year in Atlanta against Washington in the biggest opening game of the season. The game was a pressure cooking, first game rustiness, nerve wracking kind of game that Auburn somehow pulled out at the end. The backdrop was being able to see my good friends David, Adam (and his wife Nat), and Ethan (and his wife Jesse), which was really great. We talked about all matter of stuff. We drank some, we ate a lot, we joked a lot, and we enjoyed each other’s company. It was well worth the drive to Atlanta and I hope we all see each other again soon. War Eagle!