Before confusion reigns again among the Tide faithful, the game against Texas for Saban’s first natty at Bama was the BCS National Championship Game at Rose Bowl Stadium, not the Rose Bowl Game itself. This was a few years after the “Plus One” was implemented. Ohio State defeated Oregon in the Rose Bowl Game that year.

They can, but the problem at Texas is that it has the most-meddlesome boosters in college football. From the big oil barons to the politicians right in Austin, there are constant power struggles over control of the program and the coach often is just a pawn in them. If Finebaum is correct, Saban got a taste of that several years ago when the thinking was Mac Brown was going to retire and Saban was being courted by a powerful booster there to take over after being assured that Brown was stepping down. When Brown instead announced he wasn't going anywhere, Saban quickly distanced himself from the whole thing as Brown is a close friend of his. Sark is stepping into a (long)hornets' nest; hope he has plenty of cans of Raid.

So you're saying Trask should have won...because Florida would have sucked without him? Sure that's news to Pitts and the rest of his receiving corps that's considered the best in the SEC outside of Tuscaloosa.

Only if he really is 100%. It would be great to have him out there, but he does not need to risk the millions he'll be making this fall in the NFL if he is not fully healed. Love his loyalty to the program, but sometimes you also have to look at the big picture and decide if the risk is worth it.

Still think that the key to this is going to be whether OSU has it in them to get up for another big game. They were spoiling for revenge on Clemson for a year and played hard to get it, and it can be really hard getting back to that level right after playing such an emotional game. On the other hand, we wanted a shot at Clemson ourselves (no players on this team were around for the 2015 loss to the Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl) so that could take a little edge off for us as well, but at the same time we did not play in the Rose Bowl with all the stops pulled the way Ohio State did. Whoever has the most left in the tank emotionally is likely going to walk away the winner.

Think Daniel Moore is already turning that photo into his next painting.

Did you say the same thing this time last year when it was LSU getting all the love?

I am always one to roll my eyes at this whole "We have higher academic standards" thing. Where was this when Notre Dame was the top football program in the country, recruiting nationally and using their status as a Catholic school to portray playing for it as some sort of crusade to get the best players? Now that other schools recruit nationally and society overall is more secular than it used to be, we're supposed to feel sorry for Notre Dame? They've proven they can still compete; they just haven't figured out how to get back to being elite.

Bryce Young will not be a redshirt freshman next year; he will still be a true freshman as this year does not count against anyone's eligibility,

Actually the 2009 natty was won in Rose Bowl...*Stadium*. Not the Rose Bowl *Game*. The game was the 2010 Citi BCS National Champion Game; Ohio State beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl Game that year. This will be the Tide's first appearance in the Rose Bowl Game in 75 years, since January 1, 1946 when the Tide beat USC 34-14. The next year would be the start of the Rose Bowl featuring the Big Ten champion versus (what is now) the PAC-12 champion.

The guy has proven he can coach; now the question is not just whether he can recruit, but whether he can do so against Saban and Smart and Mullen and Orgeron and Kiffin and Leach and even Swinney. If he doesn't have connections in South Florida and Texas, he's going to have to develop some quickly or else Auburn is going to be looking at a string of sub-top-25 recruiting classes for a while.

The problem is, that was what happened with Alabama from 1982-2006 until Saban took over and essentially told the boosters where they could go. I fear that when he's gone, we'll be back in the same boat.

I'm sure if we beat ND that Saban is going to spend the next ten days showing the 2019 National Championship Game on a loop. 'Bama's gonna be pretty mad, too.

Would it come as any surprise at all if Fulmer was the guy behind leaking the NCAA investigation so he could kick Pruitt to the curb? This is the same guy who helped pushed Johnny Majors out in 1992 so he could get the job, was the "secret witness" against Alabama in the Albert Means case when he had recruited Means himself and was also trying to make his own NCAA inquiry go away (which it did), and now somehow got himself in as AD so he can be kingmaker in Knoxville. The only surprise I have about Fulmer is that he hasn't made himself HC...but then again, I guess he figures it's safer letting someone else he can control be in that position to take the fall as the dumpster fire burns rather than put his neck out there himself.

So Florida loses two games in a row...and drops a grand total of one spot from where they were two weeks ago? And with three losses is still ahead of unbeaten Cincinnati? Good grief....

Perhaps, though a lot of people around here have gotten turned off by some of Dabo's antics (and I don't mean beating Alabama). Sarkesian would be at the top of the list if Saban were to step down today, though we certainly want Nick around a while longer and we can't expect Sark to wait around forever. There's a good chance that the next head coach at Alabama will be a Saban assistant who hasn't even stepped foot in Tuscaloosa yet.

Perhaps, though all that would do is change the color of the uniforms when OSU and Clemson play.

When Michigan cancelled the game again OSU last week and there was talk about the Buckeyes needing another game, I was screaming, "Cincinnati!!!" Seriously, two teams in the same state? How hard could it have been to make that matchup happed if BYU was willing and able to travel all the way to Coastal Carolina at the last minute?

Actually in that first Notre Dame game, it wasn't Lawrence they missed as his backup went for over 400 yards and they still scored 40 points. It was those seven defensive starters that were out that hurt Clemson and decided the game. With all of them back in...well, we saw the results yesterday.

BCS: "A two-team, 1-vs-2 playoff to decide a national champion! It solves all our problems!" Four-team National Championship Playoff: "The four top teams playing it off for the national title! It solves all our problems!" Eight-team National Championship Playoff: "The five P5 conference champions, the top G5 team, and two wild cards playing it off for the national title! It solves all our problems!" Uh huh. And within five years: Sixteen-team National Championship Playoff: "The five P5 conference champions, the top two G5 teams, the P5 conference runners-up, and the best two-loss and three-loss teams playing it off for the national championship! It solves all our problems!" Look, I don't necessarily oppose expansion to eight teams (though I would not give anyone an automatic bid; we don't need 8-5 conference champs in as Wisconsin was a decade ago) but let's drop this whole nonsense that we're just one expansion away from perfection. Expand to eight teams, and #9 is going to gripe. Go to 16, and #17 is going to whine. And once you get past the top 4-6 teams, you really have a dozen or so teams that are practically indistinguishable from each other, and then a few dozen the same way on the tier below that, so how would you fairly discern between them for any remaining spots? Just accept that there is no perfect solution, that we keep opening the door to increasingly watered-down standards to being considered worthy of playing for a national title, and that we're setting up for a four- or five-loss team to one day get hot at the right time and beat an undefeated team for the national championship.

You beat me to it. I didn't understand his logic there either. I mean, if non-conference games are now rendered meaningless, then why would you schedule difficult non-conference games where your players stand a greater chance of injury and you won't be able to pull your starters early in the second half?

Jones played little more than a half and Arkansas dropped back to stop the long ball, so Jones took what the Hogs gave him. Trask played what is arguably the worst defense in the league and still only managed to put up 34 points against it at home. Yeah he had two TD passes and rushed for two, but he also threw two interceptions (one in the red zone, one a pick six) and fumbled with less than a minutes to go in the first half which led to a LSU FG that should have never happened. And what a coincidence, Florida lost by three. You can throw all over the field, but if your play helps cost your team the game, Heisman voters aren't going to be impressed.

While the Sugar Bowl would be the obvious destination to choose if Bama wins this weekend and gets the #1 seed, I really hope we choose to go to the Rose Bowl. We've been more times than any team not in the Big Ten or PAC-12 (and more than several teams in both conferences) but it has been 75 years since our last appearance, and how many chances do we get to go? Plus it's in our fight song, for cryin' out loud! In a year when only about 10,000 fans are going to get tickets anyway, seize the opportunity and make our fight song mean something again!

You mean aside from the Notre Dame team that beat them?

2006 was Florida vs. Arkansas, not Alabama.

I hope Auburn fans realize that Cristobal is one of Saban's former assistants...and we all know about that wonderful record those assistants have had when they've faced Saban as HCs.

Have to say that I'm really surprised Auburn fired Malzahn today. I figured that big buyout was going to guarantee him another season, plus the whole COVID thing and everyone getting a mulligan this year (though he's the third SEC coach fired this season). Perhaps Auburn heard what I had been saying the last few weeks that they learn the lesson Alabama did: the Iron Bowl is a huge rivalry, but if you're going to compete at the top level, you have to demand success beyond just how many times you've taken the James M. Foy Sportsmanship Trophy home (side note: Really? This is the best name for a rivalry trophy we can come up with?). Kids in California may have never even heard of the Iron Bowl let alone care about it (imagine Wisconsin or Minnesota recruiting your kid down here with how many times they've won Paul Bunyan's Axe) but they are going to want to see those SEC Championship trophies and New Years Six Bowl trophies and those National Championship trophies. Gus went 3-5 versus Alabama, better than anyone else, but when you've not even sniffed the national championship since your first season in 2013 and have lost at least four games every year since, that shouldn't count for much. And Auburn, it appears, finally agreed. Now Auburn fans for their sake had better hope the administration already has someone in mind and has been talking to him rather than starting the dreaded "search committee," meaning they don't and they haven't.

Give it a few days; will probably be at 20 by Wednesday with the way Florida played against LSU.

No, more like had it been to a different team. If Clemson had beaten Notre Dame earlier and was still ranked #1, then it would have been easier for the committee to slide A&M in as a 4-seed since Clemson and the Aggies had not already played. But since the Aggies have already played Alabama--and lost by 28 points--then the committee is going to be much less inclined to want to have a rematch when it could give an equally-deserving team that slot.

Auburn's offense is pedestrian at best; they only looked good against LSU's horrendous defense. Our defense has only given up 44 points total in the last four games since Ole Miss put up 48 on us. You're being awfully charitable on Auburn's score.