Disclaimer: There is no love lost between myself and Auburn. I have tried to be mostly fair in writing this post...but completely objectivity is unfortunately an impossibility. This Friday at 1:30pm, the greatest rivalry in all of college football will kickoff right here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I know that many of you are not from Alabama, and you may not quite understand what all of this Iron Bowl fuss is about. Allow me to explain.
Every year around the Iron Bowl, the tensions in Alabama get so high that normal, nice, everyday citizens from all over the state turn into hateful, spiteful, and downright mean citizens. I've seen sweet old ladies make derogatory gestures to opposing fans, and I've seen respectable elderly gentlemen come close to blows. Let me be clear...there is one thing that matters in the state of Alabama during this time of year: winning the Iron Bowl.
On the west side of the state, you have the University of Alabama. Its campus oozes tradition and pride. On the east side of the state, you have Auburn University. Its campus has a more pick-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps, familial feel to it. Alabama has historically had the upper hand in the rivalry (we lead the series 40-33-1). Alabama has also historically had a more successful football program in general than Auburn. We claim 13 national championships and 22 SEC championships to their 1 national championship (earned while on NCAA probation, no less) and 6 SEC championships. This dichotomy of tradition vs. family/champion vs. underdog defines the rivalry.
Warren St. John's (an Alabama fan) describes it well in Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer:
"Auburn is a land grant university--a cow college--created under an 1862 law that set aside money from government land sales to finance schools that taught "agriculture and mechanical arts." Alabama, with its antebellum aesthetic, is a society school, or so the thinking goes. [...] Up close the stereotypes don't hold...but in the context of the football rivalry between the two schools, the stereotypes are everything. [...] If the Alabama psyche is hung up on an antebellum fiction, the Auburn psyche is hung up on a postbellum reality. Auburn fans have all the bottled-up resentments and inferiority complexes of a defeated people. In other words, Auburn's relationship with Alabama is like the state of Alabama's relationship with the rest of the country."All psychology aside, the Iron Bowl can be boiled down to one issue: everyone wants to win. One of my favorite quotes from the legendary Coach Bryant is when he said, "Nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state." During this time of year, I agree wholeheartedly.
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