Saturday's Iron Bowl of Basketball matchup will momentarily feel more important than the Gridiron battle between Auburn and Alabama. But as USA Today's Dan Wolken relayed, that importance will be fleeting in the coming weeks when bigger and more consequential games are played.
"The point is, for all the pageantry around this weekend in Tuscaloosa and the impulse for both fan bases to either revel in their glory or despair on Saturday night, this isn’t the football Iron Bowl. The result won’t define either team’s season. There won't be a Kick Six-type moment that echoes through the decades," Wolken wrote.
"What it will be, though, is a forever milestone in the history of a long basketball rivalry that has never seen these heights before. The winner will celebrate and the loser will hurt. But no matter which side comes out ahead Saturday, there’s a whole lot more to come. "
In the build-up to the matchup, Bruce Pearl and Nate Oats have stressed the importance of the game without making insinuations that the game was bigger than the football Iron Bowl.
While No. 1 vs. No. 2 will always be the biggest deal in sports, that's more short-term. The Yellowhammer State is still a football haven first and foremost. High schools across Alabama aren't going to stop investing in football stadiums and facilities in favor of basketball.
The IBOB is the biggest deal right now. But the next time Auburn or Alabama are in the College Football Playoff conversation, hoops will be an afterthought.
So all things considered, Wolken is right. There will be bigger basketball games within weeks, and there will be bigger football matchups in the state once Kalen DeBoer and/or Hugh Freeze figures out how to resurrect their respective sleeping giants.