The Bogeyman

I think if I had a redo on what I went into college for it would be for journalism or broadcasting. I look at people talking about sports or being a talking head on TV and I think “Hey, I can do that” or “Hey, I already do this for free anyway, why I wouldn’t want to do it for a living?” And while oftentimes as a beat writer or broadcaster you often have to talk about whatever is placed in front you when you write a blog that only about 8 people read you can write about whatever the heck you want! Ah, freedom. Here goes a rant about the Iron Bowl, which is the yearly football game between Auburn and Alabama:

The last time I looked, Alabama is a 24.5 pt favorite to win the Iron Bowl this year and some other metric I saw said Alabama has a 91% chance to win the game, which Alabama is the home team for; the game is played in Tuscaloosa. Alabama is 11-0 heading into the game, they’ve already won the SEC Western Division and will be facing Georgia in the SEC Championship. Even though it will be teased for ratings, Alabama is already a shoe in for the College Football Playoff and they will be the prohibitive favorite to win it all, repeating their College Football Playoff championship last year. That is about as high cotton as you will ever see metaphorical high cotton go.

Auburn is 7-4 in a year that started with a lot of promise but ended disappointingly; the worst loss Auburn had was a home loss to a Tennessee team that isn’t very good at all and the most crushing loss was most likely the loss to Georgia, where Auburn jumped out to an early lead but was eventually overpowered in a game that highlighted details that have come to define Auburn’s season: the offensive line wasn’t giving our quarterback time to complete passes, when the O-line did give the quarterback time he didn’t make the throws he needed to, when he did make the throws he needed to the receivers didn’t catch them consistently enough. Due to the offense’s inability to stay on the field for sustained drives, Auburn’s normally steady defense eventually gave way to Georgia’s lethal ground attack; the damn eventually breaking past the point of no repair.

Alabama’s ascension into dominance hasn’t been a quick process. It’s been going on ever since Saban came to the school and I honestly don’t know if any school will ever dominate college football again as thoroughly as Alabama has. The on the field product is the end result but if you look into what went into it, the hustle is impressive. Alabama was under probation when Nick Saban came to the school. There were a couple of incidents that occurred after Saban arrived such as the T-town Men’s Wearhouse incident (the owner was selling team merchandise, etc) that did not remain in the news cycle for any significant period of time. As a comparison, Cam Newton was well into his second year in the pros before the NCAA finally, quietly, mentioned that there were no new findings into his recruitment into Auburn and they would let the issue go, barring new evidence. That’s where they left it! They didn’t even really say Auburn didn’t give Cam Newton money, just that they couldn’t find it. There was a heavy implication left that Auburn didn’t do things the right way. Meanwhile, Alabama is often praised as doing things the right way in every facet of the game. Alabama has rattled off many number one recruiting classes and there hasn’t been the whiff of a transgression thrown their way. 

There’s also the added facet of the College Football Playoff. What it comes down to essentially is that 13 people pick the 4 teams they feel are most deserving to compete in the playoffs at the end of the year and maybe I haven’t set this up well enough but as long as this system exists Alabama will be in the playoffs every single year. Don’t believe me? Consider that Alabama qualified for the playoffs despite not winning the division or conference; the reason given more than any was because of the overwhelming talent level Alabama has on their team so they’re deserving to compete for the playoff championship. Consider this happened under the last championship selection process as well, when Alabama was given the nod to face an LSU team who already defeated them in the regular season.

If I have a point in mentioning any of this, it’s that Alabama has played three dimensional chess while any other team, including Auburn, has played checkers. I want to put my opinion out there that this isn’t a good thing only because Alabama didn’t necessarily reinvent the game; they were one of the very few school who were allowed the privilege to play a different game. It’s like being able to compete in a 100-yd dash against your opponents when you’re the only person allowed to take this steroid specifically made to improve running performance. Everyone knows you’ve taken the steroid but they aren’t allowed to say anything and anyone who chooses to watch the race has to hear commentators talk about how brilliant you are for how you run.

What this should mean for any team in the SEC, particularly a team who has to play Alabama every year such as Auburn, is that they have to level set. If there’s a year where you have the horses to make the run you gallop full speed ahead. If any Auburn fan is paying attention, they did this in 2013. They did it again in 2017. If you take a year like this year, at absolute best case scenario Auburn still most likely drops 2 conference games. Which means other than a higher ranking neither the division, conference, nor conference title game is in play. And that’s even before mentioning that Alabama is most likely going to finish the year undefeated. I can understand being disappointed in a disappointing year, but in the grand scheme of things when you have the Bogeyman in your division, he’s probably going to get you more years than you get him.