Alabama's Rivals: Tide May Be Turning Away From Traditional Foes

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines the word "relevance" as: "relation to the matter at hand," or "practical and especially social applicability."

When speaking on the matter of college football, and especially the rivalries contained within, relevance is a word that has taken on special significance.

For my entire life as a college football fan, and more specifically, an Alabama football fan, my rivalries consisted of two teams:  Tennessee and Auburn.

Regardless of preseason expectations, returning talent, coaching situations, or previous records, the games against Auburn and Tennessee were circled, and looked forward to for the entire season.

History plays a great role in the growth of a rival.  Geography plays an important, though less vital role as well.

Alabama and Auburn share the state.  For many years, the two schools represented the only major college football within the boundaries.  Though UAB and Troy have recently come into the picture, for most, the situation remains the same.

Fans within the state will tell you definitively that the Iron Bowl represents all that a college football rivalry should be.  Two teams that routinely occupy national importance, share a conference, and have more than a healthy dose of hatred have grown the rivalry, the "Iron Bowl," into a household name nationwide.

Tennessee and Alabama for years occupied the "Third Saturday in October," which the rivalry still claims as a title, though the game has not occupied that exact date for some time. 

The hatred is certainly there, and like the Iron Bowl, both teams are major college football institutions and in most years, at least one of the participants is involved in the national conversation.

However, the recent trends in college football place relevance ahead of rivalry.

While folks in the state of Alabama will always relish the late November date between Alabama and Auburn, national relevance has been missing in action for a long period of time.

The last time Alabama and Auburn met when both teams resided in the top 10 nationally was 1994.  You can safely tack on another year to that streak this year, which will leave the tally at 16 years. 

While the game will always be relevant in the state, the Iron Bowl has ceased to exist on a national scale of importance for the better part of two decades.

To put that fact in perspective, there is a fairly good chance that by the year's end, Alabama will be involved in four top-10 matchups.  For 15 years, Alabama has not faced Auburn when both teams were near the top of the college football mountain. 

The rivalry with Tennessee has proved no better.  While the game has produced many entertaining contests, the national picture generally is impacted little by the game.  While the rivalry has not suffered in the least in local fanfare, a matchup that in recent years has pitted two unranked teams has drawn little or no national attention.

Now, as an admitted Alabama homer, this could easily be construed as my "elitist" Alabama attitude downplaying the rivalries because of recent "down" years at Auburn and Tennessee.  This is not the case.

In fact, Alabama shoulders most of the blame in the last decade for the loss of national implications relating to the two rivalries.  From 1997 to 2007, Alabama (notwithstanding the SEC Championship year of 1999) has been far-removed from the national stage. 

Auburn's six-year winning streak against Alabama during that time saw many below-average Alabama teams, which further removed the game from national prominence.  Alabama's return to the upper-echelon has seen Auburn slip back.

During that time, LSU and Florida have emerged as the perennial conference favorites.  Claiming three of the last four National Championships, certainly the national attention has been properly directed toward them.

For forty years, LSU's spot on Alabama's schedule meant nothing more than that of Mississippi State, Ole Miss, or considering Alabama's dominance in the series prior to the mid-90's, even Vanderbilt.  But "relevance" has changed the landscape.

LSU's emergence as a national power first enhanced their rivalry with Auburn, but that has now shifted to Alabama.  The two have locked up in classic matchups in the last two years, both with national title implications.  Add to that the "Saban factor", and this has become the "can't miss" game in the SEC West. 

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