Oh well. For us, and many Auburn fans, we enjoy the whole tournament experience and tend to hang around after the team loses. So, making the best of a first-round lost is nothing new for us. Obviously, I wish we’d beaten the Gators like we did last year, but we’re determined not to let that ruin our trip to Nashville.

Losing pretty much every road game this year and waaaay too many at home will almost certainly mean the end of the Jeff Lebo era. And that’s a shame ’cause it would have been nice to see him coach in the new arena. I really, really wish he’d been successful here.

It’s nice to know that no matter how bad Auburn’s Men’s Basketball team is, they can always beat Alabama. The game was close the whole way. But in the end, Auburn’s tenacious defense, Bama’s poor coaching (and some shear dumb luck) gave the Tiger’s the victory.

War Eagle!

Auburn’s only beaten Kentucky 17 times in the program’s history. Today, it was thiiiiiiiiiiis close to being 18. After lulling the Wildcats to sleep in the first half (by falling 19 points behind), the Tigers chipped away at the lead, and went on a 2nd half scoring spurt that tied the game with a few minutes to go. In the end, the Wildcats survived, keeping their undefeated season intact, and Toomer’s Corner TP-free.

Ashley Judd was in attendance. There were security officers stationed ALL around her, but my wife was able to snap a somewhat blurry photo of her from our seats.

The big question is, can enough moral victories keep Coach Lebo’s job safe?

You stay classy, Lane Kiffin.

At times, the Tigers looked great; at times, they looked not so great. In the end, Auburn made one less mistake than the Wildcats. It was a crazy way to start the new year/ decade.

Time for basketball season. War Eagle!

In all the excitement of winning the Heisman Trophy, it’s no surprise that Alabama’s Mark Ingram forgot to thank the person most responsible for his receiving the award - former Florida Defensive Coordinator, Charlie Strong. But I’m sure once the partying ends, and Ingram gets back to his apartment in Tuscaloosa, he’ll have the chance to reflect on this wild & crazy year and see things in their proper perspective. When he does, here’s the letter he’ll probably write.

Dear Coach Strong,
First, I gotta say, congratulations on getting that sweet head coaching job at Louisville. I know it must have been hard to get prepared for all those interviews and stuff while you had the biggest game of the season, the SEC Championship, to prepare for that same week. But hey, you put first things first, and end the end, you nailed it.

Anyway, the reason I’m writing you is to say how grateful I am to you and the statement you allowed me to make to America last week. I mean, I was REALLY worried that stinker of a game I played at Auburn was all she wrote for my Heisman campaign. I thought for sure you’d have tried to defend me the same way they did. But I guess when you got the (formerly) #1 defense in the land, you don’t really feel the need to watch tape of how a mediocre defense like Auburn’s totally shut me down. (I mean, seriously, how’d they do that?) And man, do I appreciate it. After the way I embarrased you and your guys, everyone was all like, ‘Auburn who?’ & ‘Hip-pointer what?’ (And just between us, I have no idea what a hip-pointer is. I was just feeling depressed.)

So, like, thanks for all you’ve done for me. I hope we can work together again sometime. (Maybe I can get Coach S. to put Louisville on the schedule next season, ’cause like, I could totally use another one of these trophies.) Merry Christmas, and God bless.

Mark Ingram
Bama’s First Heisman Winner

The premise of Executive Director Hancock’s article seems to be that a playoff has yet to gain a consensus, and therefore should not be adopted. His supporting reasons for this assertion use faulty logic, omissions of previous conflicting arguments, and irrelevant posturing.

First, he claims playoffs diminish and dilute the regular season. Untrue. In the BCS system, only games involving teams likely to finish first or second in the final standings really “matter.” As we’ve seen in the final weeks of each season, only a handful of teams fit this description. In contrast, a larger field playoff would produce an exponentially larger number of games that “matter.” How can a larger number be seen as diminishing?

Perhaps he views an increase in the number of meaningful games as dilution. If so, he must also believe demand for meaningful games is currently being satisfied; which would fly in the face of conventional wisdom, and probably come as a surprise to ALL college football fans. It’s more likely that a higher number of meaningful games would be universally well received.

Second, he claims, “It’s unrealistic to ask thousands of college students and fans to travel to faraway places week after week.” How does he know this? The closest equivalent, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, has no trouble filling arenas for its 74 games of 65 teams. Compare that to 15 games among 16 teams in an upper-division college football playoff, and it’s hard to see why Executive Director Hancock is being so pessimistic. In fairness, Hancock could be expecting THE SAME group of fans to travel to each of their teams’ games every week. But in my experience, not all fans attend all their teams’ games, currently.

Third, he claims that the opportunity for additional teams to compete for a championship would generate more controversy. In a quantitative sense, he could be correct. However, in a qualitative sense, he fails to admit that the nature of the controversy would shift from debating the worthiness of the top teams, to one debating those at the bottom.

It’s also worth noting that the BCS’s position on controversy has changed significantly over the years. Previous SEC Commissioner and BCS co-architect, Roy Kramer, said in 1999, “you people will write some great articles and we’ll have everyone in the world talking about college football. Isn’t that what we’re after anyway?” The BCS needs to explain this flip-flop. What exactly has happened since 1999 that’s made controversy something to be avoided where it once was embraced?

Fourth, Hancock makes a weak and irrelevant mention of student athletes and their long term athletic involvement. I actually agree with the statement he makes. I just wish he would have omitted it, because it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the alleged lack of consensus for a playoff. I don’t like to project motives, but it seems like he feels compelled to throw in an obligatory reference to student athletes… because, that’s obviously the BCS’s fourth major concern.

In conclusion, I believe Executive Director Hancock needs to reexamine the strength of his position against an upper-division college football playoff. Currently, his arguments don’t meet the critical thinking standards of the universities whose interests he claims he has at heart.

So with the stunning Alabama win, yours truly now becomes the world’s biggest Texas fan (Hook ‘Em Horns!). Hopefully, Will Muschamp won’t ignore the blueprint Auburn laid out for dismantling the Tide.

The only positive thing I can take away from tonight’s horrible, horrible SEC Championship Game is that Auburn’s coaching staff is better than Florida’s. War Eagle!

My latest installment of the fAUllow Friday column I write for theWarEagleReader.com has posted. This time, I’ve featured Auburn hero, Ambrose “Rowdy” Gaines. I personally think Rowdy’s just awesome, and encourage all Auburn folks to follow his Tweets and be his Facebook friend.

War Eagle, Rowdy!

It was a hard-fought, up-and-down game, that Auburn had the opportunity to win. In the end, Bama has one more play-maker than Auburn did. Oh well, at least that player wasn’t Ingram - who tonight showed he’s about the 3rd-best running back in the state.