Ever since Cain and Abel went after each other in the Book of Genesis, brothers have fought.

And more often than not (although it certainly wasn’t the case in Genesis …), big brother wins.

Big brother is older. Big brother is stronger. Big brother knows the angles and the tricks. Little brother takes the beating and tries not to make it worse by telling mom.

Every now and then, little brother might get a solid lick in. Maybe a sucker punch, a low blow. But the pain and misery that would come afterward would make little brother think twice before getting uppity again.

The Alabama Crimson Tide is the ultimate Big Brother. Tuscaloosa is the Capstone, not only of the University but of the entire state. You want to win in college football? As Ric Flair would say, you gotta walk that aisle, step into the ring and take your best shot.

Auburn?

Little brother.

Always has been. Always will be.

Literally, books have been written about Alabama’s dominance. Books. Throw out the Mike Shulas and Ears Whitworths and such, and a boxing referee would practically be standing over the Tigers at the count of 8 by now.

For the longest time, if you wanted Auburn football tickets or general information, you’d call a number that ended in 1957 — as in the year of the Tigers’ one and only national championship. The school has since changed the number to end in 2010. Imagine if Alabama had that philosophy … the Crimson Tide would have to change numbers every couple of years.

By all accounts, Ralph “Shug” Jordan was a kind and pleasant fellow. And a pretty good football coach, too. Jordan was the coach who led the Tigers to their 10-0 record and the 1957 title. Held in such revere, Jordan-Hare Stadium was renamed in his honor while he still coaching in 1973 — the first time in the United States a stadium was named for an active coach. When Jordan retired after the 1975 season, he had amassed a record of 176-83-6 for a .675 winning percentage.

Before that, Jordan was a World War II veteran who was said to have stormed the beaches of Normandy with a copy of The Auburn Creed in his pocket. And when he coached, Jordan always did his best to prepare his Auburn teams for their fight against Alabama. He was popularly quoted as saying before an Iron Bowl:

“always remember … Goliath was a 40-point favorite over David.”

Jordan’s record against legendary Alabama coach Paul W. Bryant, who responded to Mama’s call in 1958, one year after the 1957 Auburn title?

5-13.

If it was a fair fight up to 1958, Bryant made the Iron Bowl bend to his will. In 25 years coaching against little brother, Bryant went 19-6 — against Jordan and then Doug Barfield and Pat Dye. It was in Bryant’s era that little brother became a cow college, thanks to Bryant famously saying “sure I’d like to beat Notre Dame, don’t get me wrong. But nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state.”

It was in Dye’s era that the Tigers became increasingly booger-esque. Dye didn’t feel the Iron Bowl belonged in Birmingham anymore and strong-armed the rivalry into going to Auburn every other year. Between that and various alleged pay-for-play scandals, Dye found the exit as athletic director in 1991 and head coach a year afterward.

Terry Bowden followed, and his diminutive manner didn’t cease the cheating in an effort to try and even Auburn’s power imbalance against Alabama. And in the transition to Tommy Tuberville, which coincides with Alabama enduring NCAA woes of its own, Auburn got as uppity as little brother can get — with Tuberville infamously wagging fingers each season to denote the number of consecutive victories against the Tide.

But just as Icarus infamously flew too close to the sun, so too did Tuberville. And just like little brother throws one sucker punch too many, so too did Auburn — which inexplicably ran Tuberville out of town for Gene Chizik.

The greatest college football coach to ever wear a dentist’s smock, Chizik’s greatest accomplishment was (allegedly) a business partnership with the Rev. Cecil Newton and his son, Cameron Jerrell. The NCAA cleared Auburn and Newton, allowing them to pause Nick Saban’s run of national championships with an upset victory in 2010 that led to Auburn’s 2nd national title and finally got that 1957 phone number changed.

Auburn ran Chizik off, too, just 2 years after hoisting crystal. Gus Malzahn was the replacement — and he has gone just 2-4 against Auburn’s perennial Big Brother.

Why is beating Auburn so much fun? Because the Tigers love their stupid Creed. Because Tigers fans deify Patrick Fain Dye despite him coming close to closing the program down with the NCAA.

Because Auburn knows it is David to Alabama’s Goliath. They’ve known it ever since the best coach in Auburn history said so. They know it now and they’ll know it Saturday.

Auburn is little brother. Alabama is Big Brother.

Why is beating Auburn so much fun? Because that’s what Big Brothers do.