Auburn may not claim double-digit national titles, but the Tigers have a proud football tradition: eight SEC titles, two national championships and many more “unclaimed.”

What are the best five teams in Auburn football history since the university fielded its first team in 1892?

Just Missed The Cut: 1913 (8-0, national champions), 1988 (10-2), 1993 (11-0, ineligible for postseason), 2013 (12-2, lost BCS title game)

5. 1957 (10-0, AP national champions despite postseason ineligibility)

An NCAA violation prevented the Tigers from playing in a bowl game, but the Associated Press awarded them a No. 1 ranking anyway.

Auburn’s defense allowed just three touchdowns all season in addition to a pick six thrown by quarterback Lloyd Nix, leading to a comical exchange with then-head coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan.

Eighteen players from the ’57 team eventually got drafted into the NFL. Tommy Lorino and Bobby Hoppe anchored a strong running game while center Jackie Burkett cleared a wide swatch of land in front of them. But the defense was outstanding, allowing the team to win four games in which Auburn scored seven points or less.

Notable: Auburn demoralized Alabama, 40-0, in the Iron Bowl. The Tide soon fired coach J.B. “Ears” Whitworth and hired a man by the name of Paul Bryant.

Memorable Win: According to research done by AL.com, Jordan called his team “a ripe plum ready for plucking” after a 40-7 victory against Chattanooga. Sure enough, Kentucky almost notched the monumental upset. But Lou Michaels, who finished fourth in that season’s Heisman Trophy voting, got penalized for a violent hit on Lorino, leading to the only score of the game in a 6-0 win.

Best Player: Jimmy “Red” Phillips

4. 1983 (11-1, finished a controversial No. 3 in the final AP poll)

Auburn played a particularly brutal schedule in ’83, probably the most difficult in the country. In addition to the Iron Bowl against No. 19 Alabama, the Tigers faced five teams ranked in the Top 10 at the time in addition to solid teams in Georgia Tech, Tennessee and Southern Miss.

A loss to then-No. 3 Texas early in the season proved fatal for this group, which clipped No. 8 Michigan in the Sugar Bowl, watched No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Texas lose bowl games and then sat stunned as Miami jumped from No. 5 to No. 1.

The team featured a number of future professional football standouts, including perhaps the most loaded backfield in school history with Bo Jackson, Lionel James and Tommy Agee. Donnie Humphrey and Doug Smith made for a savage defensive line, and Steve Wallace and Al Del Greco also played outstanding for the Tigers.

Miami lost to Florida, 28-3 — a team which Auburn beat — but got to play Nebraska, considered perhaps the best team ever, in a bowl game, and won (by one point on the Hurricanes’ home field after a failed two-point try by the Cornhuskers). Auburn didn’t have a choice but to play in the Sugar Bowl, as the top SEC team did automatically. Still, the New York Times named Auburn the national champions, and many felt like the team got snubbed by the Associated Press poll.

Notable: Four SEC teams finished the season ranked in the Top 15, and Auburn beat the other three.

Memorable Win: Agee (219 rushing yards), James (115) and Jackson (105) eeked past Maryland with a 21-point fourth-quarter outburst. The game featured a clash of two contrasting styles, as quarterback Boomer Esiason threw for 355 yards and three scores for the seventh-ranked Terrapins.

Best Player: Bo Jackson

3. 1914 (8-0-1, retroactive national champions)

“Iron Mike” Donahue’s ’14 team did not allow a single point. Retroactively named national champions, the team continued what became a 22-game unbeaten streak. (As an aside, Donahue, born in Ireland in 1876, looked comically baby-faced coaching the ’14 team.)

Having lost several offensive standouts from the successful ’13 squad, Donahue relied on a 7-2-2 defense to smother opponents. The defense featured big-bodied interior players and “smashing ends” like converted halfback Richard “Bull” Kearley.

Notable: Auburn needed three fourth-down stops in the fourth quarter to preserve back-to-back wins against Vanderbilt, then the premier Southern football power. The team missed a chance at a perfect season when Georgia caught halfback Frank Hart from behind as time expired in a 0-0 tie.

Memorable Win: The Carlisle Indians, coached by Pop Warner, featured offensive trickery, including multiple reverses on nearly every play. Despite graduating Jim Thorpe the year before, the Indians featured All-American fullback Pete Calac, with a combination of size, physicality and strength ahead of his time. But the Indians hadn’t met a defense quite like this Auburn team, which shut them out 7-0 at Piedmont Park in Atlanta.

Best Player: “Bull” Kearley

2. 2010 (14-0, BCS National Champions)

This team included some nice complimentary pieces. Both offensive tackles eventually got drafted. The backfield of Michael Dyer and Onterio McCalebb, as well as wideout Darvin Adams, thrived in offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn’s spread attack. Nick Fairley was the defensive equivalent of Cam Newton, earning SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors as a constant disruption.

But make no mistake, the community-college transfer and former Florida quarterback was the straw that stirred the drink. Auburn averaged more than 41.2 points per game as Newton accounted for 50 touchdowns in one of the most dominating single seasons in SEC history before going No. 1 overall in the NFL draft.

Notable: The team won seven games by one possession, including a 22-19 win against Oregon in the BCS Championship. The Tigers survived several close calls, falling behind 17-0 to Clemson before rallying for an overtime win and needing a last-second field goal to get past Kentucky in Commonwealth Stadium.

Memorable Win: Down 24-0 in the second quarter, Auburn rallied to win the Iron Bowl, 28-27, in Tuscaloosa against then-No. 9 Alabama. An under-appreciated game in Iron Bowl history, it represents one of the more remarkable comebacks in SEC history. Prior to the game, Auburn had beaten all three of its ranked opponents at home.

Best Player: Cam Newton (Heisman Trophy, AP Player of the Year)

1. 2004 (13-0, snubbed for BCS Championship Game)

This team will forever be remembered as the poster child for all that was wrong with the BCS system. If anything, over the years the perception of the ’04 Tigers has gotten stronger. Don’t you wish this had been 10 years later and we got to see this team compete in a playoff?

The ’04 team may not have the hardware of the ’10 team, but study the season and tell me which was more dominant in going unbeaten.

Auburn knocked off four Top 15 teams prior to the final BCS poll, but USC and Oklahoma, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 since before the season, played for the national title instead. The Sooners got blasted, 55-19, while the Tigers beat No. 9 Virginia Tech to finish the season ranked No. 2. (USC eventually vacated its national title due to NCAA sanctions.)

A no-name defense allowed more than 14 points just once in the regular season and Auburn demolished almost every opponent by multiple scores.

Jason Campbell, Carnell “Cadillac” Williams and Ronnie Brown propelled an excellent offense, while Carlos Rogers spearheaded the defense. All four players got drafted in the first round after the season, and offensive tackle Marcus McNeil barely missed as a second-round selection following the ’05 season.

Newton’s one-man blitz was impressive and the ’83 roster was littered with legends, but it’s hard to match the balance and overall domination of the ’04 Auburn team.

Notable: Auburn played final AP poll No. 7 Georgia and No. 13 Tennessee a combined three times, winning by a combined score of 96-44.

Memorable Win: Auburn’s one near-miss of the season came Sept. 19 against then-No. 5 LSU. The Tigers scored the game-tying touchdown with 1:14 left, but John Vaughn missed the extra point after a low snap. Luckily, Ronnie Prude got flagged for a personal foul, and Vaughn made his second attempt for the victory.

Best Player: Ronnie Brown