Auburn football: RTR takes shot at AU, says Clemson has been on ‘Bama’s level

Rubbing the Rock’s Shawn Spencer took a shot at every non-LSU and Alabama program in saying that the SEC has not won championships outside of those two squads, conveniently forgetting the 2010 National Championship Auburn football team.

And then he claimed that Clemson has been on Alabama’s level the past several years.

Okay, let’s dissect this here. Spencer is a Clemson-loving man who has witnessed some pretty dominant football the past few years. Clemson has won as many national championships as the team up north since 2016. They’ve also lost just one more game in that stretch, and have been to the College Football Playoff more than the Tide since its inception in 2015. To boot, the two teams are 2-2 during this stretch.

Could he be correct?

Well, context is key. Spencer takes a pretty bold shot at the SEC here, taking down the depth of the conference and claiming the conference pride is foolhardy unless you live in Baton Rouge or Tuscaloosa:

"SEC fans want to make fun of Clemson’s schedule, but then ignore the fact that they’re bolstered with mulligans– ie. free losses– and that their conference isn’t as deep as they’d like to think it is. Sorry, but Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Missouri, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Kentucky haven’t proven in any way, shape, or form that they’re anything close to elite programs."

I’d say including Mississippi State here is unfair considering the fact they won at least nine games three of the past seven years. To answer the Alabama question, though, I’d say that Clemson probably wouldn’t have as squeaky clean a record if:

1. Notre Dame was actually part of the ACC schedule every year, and…
2. They were mandated to battle the likes of Texas A&M, LSU, and Auburn football over the span of a month and a half every season.

Not to sound like Roman Reigns, but a simple acknowledgment of Auburn football’s recent National Championship and one-score losses the past three times the Plains Tigers took on the ACC Tigers would have sufficed. All of this would be applicable to the Georgia Bulldogs.

But, a shot is a shot, and some shots are too poignant for there not to be a chaser.