A Restrained and Tentative "War Eagle"

I’m definitely not an Auburn fan.   In my home state, you can’t root for both Alabama and Auburn.  Eventually you must choose.  As an alumnus of the University of Florida, I stayed neutral on the Alabama/Auburn rivalry for years until my son enrolled at the state school in Tuscaloosa.  So now I comfortably wear my crimson colors on autumn Saturdays, unless of course the Tide faces the Gators. 

Hard core Alabama fans are pulling for the Oregon Ducks in the upcoming BCS Championship game.  The rivalry is just too intense and ingrained in the culture of the state to allow this group to take any enjoyment from the other team’s success.  But I’m not hard core being only a recently declared Tide fan, so my New Year’s wish for the Auburn Tigers is an undefeated season punctuated with an undisputed national championship.

Auburn has had a very successful but star crossed football program.  They’ve won 7 SEC championships, shared the 1957 national championship with Ohio State, and had 3 Heisman trophy winners.  As a whole though, the program has been very unlucky.  What other team from a major conference has gone undefeated twice in the last two decades and not had a chance to play for the title?  Terry Bowden’s 1993 team won 11 without a loss, but probation kept them out of the bowls that year.  Tommy Tuberville’s 2004 team won the SEC championship and finished 13-0, but two other teams were undefeated that year, USC and Oklahoma, and Auburn was voted the third wheel in the BCS dance.

This should be the year that the championship comes to the Plains.  Heisman trophy winning quarterback Cam Newton has elevated the Tigers like no player in recent memory.  Yes, Newton is even more crucial to Auburn’s success than Tim Tebow was to Florida’s.  A win against Oregon on January 10 will finally exorcise the demons of 1993 and 2004.  Or will it?

The NCAA cleared Cam Newton to play in the SEC Championship and subsequent games when its investigation of the Newton family’s alleged solicitation of improper benefits from the university came up with no solid evidence.  However it has been proven that Cecil Newton, Cam’s father, did try to “sell” his son’s services to Mississippi State prior to his enrollment at Auburn.  Is it plausible that when rebuffed by MSU, Cecil allowed Cam to pick Auburn with no money changing hands?  Yes it is possible that after not getting paid from MSU, Cam had to go to another school to save face.  Is it plausible that Cecil didn’t ask Auburn for money?  Unlikely. 

With the FBI and the media continuing to dig around south Alabama and Atlanta, where Cecil Newton’s church is located, the truth will eventually come out.  Here’s hoping that Auburn comes away clean, and is not proven to have made a Faustian bargain with Newton.  All it would take is for some booster to have paid Cecil or Cam some money and all the joy of this season will be taken away.  I hope for Auburn’s sake as well as for that of the SEC, that the recruitment was clean.  Happy New Year Auburn and here’s a tentative and restrained War Eagle shout out.