First, I want to give props to all the Auburn bloggers out there, even the ones I do not care for. To blog decent stuff each week and get it out on time is definitely harder than it looks. As always, three young kids and work make it hard for me. Add the holidays and getting sick and it gets even harder. My apologies to the few people who actually read this blog. Another thing that has hurt is the lost of Jerry Hinnen at War Blog Eagle to CBS Sports. I do not agree with Jerry a good deal of the time but I really enjoyed reading his stuff and I know how much he has enjoyed this season and it would have been great to read his thoughts about it. It was definitely a large blow to the Auburn blogging world as nobody right now is quite as good as Jerry. We also lost most of Will Collier behind the pay-per-read wall at Auburnsports.com. Thank goodness we still have Andy Bitter to keep us up-to-date. I am sure someone as good as Andy will not last long as an Auburn beat writer.
OK with that out of the way, back to the matter at hand... Auburn is SEC champions. A lot of people I talk with year in and year out think I am always too hard on Auburn. I always say it is where you are coming from. When I grade Auburn any season I grade them on whether they can first win the SEC West and then whether they can win the whole thing. Winning the SEC West is my goal for any Auburn team any season. If they are not playing that way I am going to say it. Just about any team can get to a bowl game. It is one of the greatest accomplishments in college football to win the Southeastern Conference. This 2010 Auburn team is in that rare group and they did it in style. Like my last post said, I thought this could game could be a trap for Auburn. I am very glad that I was wrong. This Auburn team came out and swept away South Carolina in the biggest rout in SEC championship game history.
I will never forget going crazy with my family when Cam connected with Darvin Adams on the tipped "Hail Mary" pass at the end of the first half. The party was on after that. We broke out the margaritas and Auburn provided plenty more entertainment with the game ending Tasharvan Bell touchdown interception plus Cam and the Auburn offense getting a couple more as well. We then had the scrubs in the game with over FIVE MINUTES LEFT like it was homecoming or something???!!!??? I never saw that coming but was so happy to see it. Even the scrubs put it to South Carolina with Barrett Trotter running and passing and Super Mario Fannin scoring the final touchdown. It was again truly great to be an Auburn Tiger.
It is great to be in the mythical national championship game. If you have to play in the system, as flawed as it is, you might as well play in the best game. However no matter what happens this team is one of the all time greats in Auburn history. The SEC is still bigger to me as it is a legitimate postseason game as opposed to a system where the two teams wait 40 days or more to play a championship game. What if the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburg Steelers waited 40 days after the NFL championship games to play the Super Bowl? What if the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers waited 40 days after the NBA conference final series to play the NBA Finals? What if Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal waited 40 days to play a Grand Slam final after winning the semi-finals? The answer to all those questions is that it would stink and the two teams or players would NOT BE THE SAME as the ones that ended the season.
I know Auburn is the better team but you never know what will happen when a team plays 40 days after its last game. It is certainly much tougher when your team stars and coaches have to go on a two week award tour where everyone tells you how great you are and you are not working. It will be a big challenge for this Auburn football team but these guys have met every challenge so far and I know there is no way that Oregon will present a harder challenge than being down 24-0 to Bama in Tuscaloosa.
To end on a positive note, you have to know that Bama fans still have a sick feeling in their stomachs blowing that lead. All I know is that I sure would if the shoe was on the other foot. I also have to say that Auburn vs. Oregon is just a cool matchup. As I have grown to loathe the bowl system the only thing I can find good about it is that it occasionally gives cool matchups. This is one of them.
Finally, I want to say one more time, the 2010 Auburn football Tigers are the Southeastern Conference football champions. War Eagle.
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