Tide-Tigers not what it used to be
At some point before the college football season starts, a media outlet will do another one of those polls ranking the greatest rivalries in the sport. When that happens, all the Alabama and Auburn fans will team up to become odd brethren, voting to boost the score for the Iron Bowl.
It won't matter.
Alabama-Auburn still won't win, because it's not the rivalry it once was. In-state, neighbor-to-neighbor, the Iron Bowl still holds enormous weight. But that doesn't make it much different from other games throughout the country. Sure, it's more intense here, we say. But is it anymore?
It used to be Tigers and Crimson Tide fans didn't need to vote their game No. 1. It simply was, and football fans knew it. A variety of factors during the past few years have downgraded the Iron Bowl from the ranks of Duke-North Carolina basketball to just your typical, intense, in-state football game. It's a shame, really, but there are solid reasons:
# Tennessee: If you were to poll Alabama fans on which school they'd rather beat this season, Auburn or Tennessee, the majority would say the Vols.
It's true. Not in the past, of course. But, this year, after the Tommy Gallion lawsuit and accusations that Vols coach Phillip Fulmer played a large role in the Tide's latest NCAA sanctions, you can't think Alabama fans wouldn't rather put a licking on him in Knoxville. A few years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Then again, so would all the craziness surrounding this highly public fiasco that keeps picking up steam.
# Records: The Iron Bowl simply doesn't mean as much nationally because of the stakes. Erratic Alabama is 45-40 since Gene Stallings retired after the 1996 season. That includes a three-win season and two four-win years. While the Tide has been up and down, the Tigers have been consistently lukewarm, never reaching double-digit wins in a season under Tommy Tuberville. This means the Iron Bowl now boasts little national importance for either team, much less both of them, as was the case as recently as the mid-1990s.
# Changing SEC: Now that Florida and Tennessee have faded, Georgia and LSU have emerged as the league's dominant teams. A look at recruiting classes and depth charts indicates that probably won't change anytime soon.
The result is that the LSU game becomes the most significant, if not most intense, contest for Auburn and Alabama. Then, the Tigers get the Bulldogs in late November. While it's not the rivalry of Alabama, it's close and getting closer. There's little secret Tuberville and Mark Richt aren't pals. Neither are fans of the two schools. Auburn's coaching staff was nearly history after losing at Georgia last season.
# Coaching changes: Right now, Alabama fans have more reasons than Auburn fans to dislike Mike Shula. Given the new Alabama coach's timid comments and flair for political correctness, Tigers fans probably won't have one.
Tuberville isn't liked by Bama Nation, but he's respected enough to not be genuinely hated the way, say, Terry Bowden was or Fulmer is now.
Dennis Franchione? Now there was a coach you could hate. "That other school" — he went out of his way to heat this baby up.
# Home and home: There's no question the move from Legion Field to each school's campus hurt the rivalry. The neutral site was a defining characteristic of this series, though many at Auburn felt it wasn't quite so neutral. The Tigers may have had a point, but it's just not the same feel with partisan crowds.
# Crisis: If it's true misery loves company, then Alabama and Auburn are joined at the hip these days. Scandal after scandal in the past 12 years have left the state's football image tarnished, and so Tide and Tigers fans have joined under the same flag to defend the reputation of the state, and therefore, the other school.
Just when one side appears to have wiped itself out, the other's president and athletics director jump on a plane for Louisville, Ky. Therefore, the cycle repeats itself. Nobody wins, and the Iron Bowl is a victim.
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