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Bama fans I have a question about who is your biggest rival

fatphilsbrother

fatphilsbrother

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Oct 18, 2012
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Obviously most people think that Auburn is Bama's biggest rival. I wanted to ask Bama fans themselves on who they thought was their biggest rivals. Maybe a top 3 rival list in order.
 
fatphilsbrother said:
Obviously most people think that Auburn is Bama's biggest rival. I wanted to ask Bama fans themselves on who they thought was their biggest rivals. Maybe a top 3 rival list in order.
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The "problem" with the barn is they only exists to try to beat Bama.

The barn is just a nuisance. Most seasons beating them adds nothing to our resume because they are a perennial 7-5/8-4 type team. But if we lose to them, they brag like they've won the NC. All they care about is trying to beat big brother!

Me personally? I wish we didn't even play them so they wouldn't have a chance for that "feather in their cap."
 
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Bamabuzzard said:
1. Auburn
2. Tennessee

There's no number three. Anything beyond the above two is someone's personal rival.
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I added LSU at #3. I think CNS made that a "rival" game cause he always wanted to beat them and vice versa.

Lately, Georgia is probably more of the #3 simply because they often stand in the way of winning the SEC.
 
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fatphilsbrother said:
Obviously most people think that Auburn is Bama's biggest rival. I wanted to ask Bama fans themselves on who they thought was their biggest rivals. Maybe a top 3 rival list in order.
Click to expand...

I think if one was an Alabama fan before maybe 1972, it's probably Tennessee.
If someone discovered college football around that time or later, it's probably Auburn.

What made the Iron Bowl and Auburn a "rival" were a few things:
1) Coach Bryant arriving and saying nothing was more important than beating "that cow college"
2) the IB being on national TV every year since 1980 (except 1993) with legendary games
3) Pat Dye's start coinciding with Bryant's end (and the fact he coached for him)
4) the raging controversy over moving the game out of Birmingham that lasted nearly a decade

The Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry wasn't a case of, "The game is played in Tulsa every year, and we refuse to move it" for example.

I think LSU was Alabama's biggest rival ON THE FIELD from the moment we hired Saban until the moment he retired. Remember, LSU won two national championships - with two different coaches - and played for a third. They also knocked us out of any title hopes in 2010, 2019, and 2022.

So basically......

1) Tennessee - before say 1972 (this is a flexible date)
2) Auburn - from 1972 to 2007
3) LSU - from 2008 to 2023

In all honesty - nowadays - it's PROBABLY Tennessee right now. It would be UGA if we played every year.
 
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Personally, I detest UGA above all others, but that is largely a consequence of the last nine years since Kirby Smart left UA the way that he did. Prior to that, UGA fans simply made me laugh with their seeming sense of entitlement despite not winning anything of consequence since before I was born (in 1983). Kirby's haircut and continued sideline presence - along with the frequent bouts of irrelevance of AU and UT that I reference below - leave Georgia firmly entrenched at #1 on my list.

I don't like Auburn, but outside of the "fear the thumb" years and the $cam period, they've been an irrelevant program for most of my life. Despite that, Auburn fans are insufferable any time they're even decent, and their tendency to cite success in non-football sports as a way of mitigating how often their football team stinks (despite incredible resource availability) makes me want to throat-punch a kitten. All that makes them my #2.

Speaking of irrelevant programs, UT has been that for the bulk of my life outside a few flashes of brilliance and their recent success, but my hatred for all things in safety orange stems from Fat Phil and his attempt to bury our program with his antics a generation ago. That earns them my #3 spot.
 
fatphilsbrother said:
Obviously most people think that Auburn is Bama's biggest rival. I wanted to ask Bama fans themselves on who they thought was their biggest rivals. Maybe a top 3 rival list in order.
Click to expand...

One thing to note is that much of Auburn's being our rival is essentially based on their say-so, the fact they're within the state borders, and the fact when the Iron Bowl began to be a national telecast MOST of the games (1981-97) were either scintillating contests or had historic import. And Auburn fans, who consoled themselves with, "Once Bryant is gone, we're gonna beat you" began citing cherry picked data to understate how one-sided the rivalry was until the early 2000s, when they were beating a probation riddled corpse. (It's amusing how many Auburn fans want to remember 1957 and then exclude every Alabama game from then to 1981 except for the one in 1972 to pretend they're our equal. And NO - not all of them do that).

Auburn's move into being our chief rival was a perfect storm of television, CFB rights fees, an expanded SEC schedule, and the fact we failed to move on quickly enough from the Bryant era mentally and emotionally. The teams were already moving closer together as were ALL teams when the NCAA adopted scholarship restrictions, which delivered some guys Bryant would have put on his bench to Auburn's front doorstep.

Also - and as a Vols fan I can't expect you to know this - although Bryant never really named "starters", his teams were laden with juniors and seniors and very few freshmen saw the field even after that restriction was lifted unless said freshman was a budding superstar. And when that happened - and he left - we had a largely inexperienced team behind them learning a new offense and without much backup if things went wrong. Perkins was installing an NFL pro set offense with players recruited to run a wishbone, which had predictable results.


Let me give you a concrete example: Marcus Allen won the 1981 Heisman Trophy with 2,342 rushing yards. The #2 rusher that year was Herschel Walker (1891 yards). But Alabama had SIX BACKS - four RBs and two QBs - who rushed for 1,960 yards. Bryant distributed the ball with fresh backs.
And knowing the counterargument, let's look at numbers:

1981 RUSHING YPG:
Georgia 282.0
Alabama 280.2
USC 274.4

All three teams played 12 games.
All played a Top 7 ranked opponent in a New Year's Day bowl.

So I know what you're thinking, "Yeah, but Alabama ran the wishbone so their passing yards...."

1981 PASSING YPG:
Georgia 164.5
Alabama 105.1
USC 93.3

So even though USC had Marcus Allen at tailback.....and future NFL Pro Sean Salisbury at QB......Alabama had more rushing ypg AND more passing ypg than USC did.
While running a wishbone.

It was the timing of Auburn's rise coinciding with Alabama's fall that made them our "rival" in the mind of out-of-state fans.
 
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lowend said:
I absolutely DESPISE playing Auburn. I always have an uneasy feeling heading into the game and can never get away from the feeling that some gimicky voodoo is going to happen that will give them the win.
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This right here. For whatever reason, I'm always confident when we play Georgia, even when they are incredibly talented. Conversely, it doesn't matter how abjectly terrible a season AU is having, when we play them (especially at JHS), I expect something absolutely bananas to happen that makes the game far closer than it should be.
 
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