Analyst cites brutal yearly Auburn football schedule in addressing Nick Saban comments
Nick Saban’s recent complaints about the proposed fixed opponents for Alabama when Texas and Oklahoma make their way over to the SEC in 2024 — those opponents including LSU, Tennessee, and Auburn — fell on deaf ears for those who’ve been paying attention to the past decade-plus of Auburn football.
Saban implied that the way the SEC formulated each opponent, which included looking over the last 10 years of results and taking into account existing rivalries, didn’t take fairness and balance into account.
Auburn’s BSS account didn’t want to hear Saban complain given the gauntlet Auburn football faces annually on the gridiron…
Does he not realize the schedule Auburn has had to play every year???? https://t.co/le8GenRByb
— Auburn Barstool (@WarDamnStool) March 3, 2023
Which teams should be the fixed permanent rivals of Auburn football
When it comes to AU’s personal rivals, two are obvious. The Iron Bowl game against Alabama and the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry game against Georgia will always stand the test of time and will never go anywhere.
As for their third rival? That will be up for debate. Evidently, it’s unpopular to overload a specific team, so giving Auburn a rival like Tennessee or LSU would be equally egregious to giving both to Alabama.
Still, college football’s lore was built on familiarity, which of course breeds contempt. If classic AU rival Florida is too strong of an opponent for balance’s sake, the best two rivalries worth keeping alive would be the two Mississippi teams.
Ole Miss and Auburn is going to be a heated matchup as long as Lane Kiffin is coaching the Rebels after the great coaching carousel of 2022 that resulted in former Ole Miss HC Hugh Freeze — who of course was dismissed from Oxford for controversial reasons — becoming the new Tigers coach. Yearly trips between the Plains and Ole Grove for both teams would be good for the SEC as long as Kiffin and Freeze are in their current seats.
Mississippi State would be a good choice as well since recent games between MSU and Auburn have been competitive and highly entertaining. Following Mike Leach’s death, though, it’s unknown where they’ll fall in the standings after improving each of the past several seasons.
The Bulldogs would be a suitable third Alabama opponent given the proximity between Starkville and Tuscaloosa with that said. We’ll see if Saban’s lobbying could make that a reality.