Auburn football has been synonymous with the SEC since the conference’s inception, but with the way the teams at the top have dominated in recent years, it may be time for the Tigers to do the unthinkable: relegate themselves and leave the SEC for a smaller conference.
Auburn has managed to forge a reputation for hanging in with the best of the best in the “Just Means More” conference, but it’s been Alabama and Georgia (and LSU to a lesser extent) that have forged a reputation for being the best.
Add Texas and Oklahoma to the mix, and AU, along with similarly proud programs also losing the plot like Florida and Tennessee, could start to be seen as anywhere between “mid” and a bottom-feeder.
That’s not a just world considering what the Auburn family pours into every Saturday.
Auburn football should consider a move to the ACC
If Auburn were to decide to move to the ACC, they’d instantly become the biggest brand in that conference. With the lack of competition in the ACC compared to the SEC, Auburn football would have a legitimate chance to run it year in and year out.
Imagine telling recruits you can play in front of the most passionate fans in the world but not have to play 20% of the ranked teams in a given season. How could a high school kid say no to such a proposition?
I know many of the traditionalists will hate the idea of Auburn, a founding conference member, moving out of the SEC to avoid battles against the best of the best, but that would ultimately lead to more exposure from the country to winning football; thus, improving the Plains’ brand after the fanbase’s in-fighting has become weaponized by external sources.
In life sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions to get what is best for you. Auburn moving down to the ACC would be like eating Synsepalum dulcificum: it’d be something that tastes sweet after you expected it to be sour.