The Iron Bowl: The Best Rivalry In College Football

The Iron Bowl. Everyone knows that is the annual game played between The University of Alabama and Auburn University at the end of both schools regular season. But to the people of the state of Alabama it is so much more than that. In my opinion there is no greater regular season game in college football than watching Alabama and Auburn play every November.

I have loved Alabama football as long as I can remember. And as long as I can remember I have hated that school across the state. My earliest memories of the Iron Bowl are the 1994 game where Alabama beat Auburn 21-14 to end their 21 game winning streak. I was 5 years old at the time of that game. The few years after that seemed like it was back and forth every year with the exception of Bama's 2 game winning streak against Auburn in 1998 and 1999.

The worst memory I have is watching Auburn take down  Alabama in 2002 17-7 when hardly anyone gave Auburn a chance that year. I was stunned as I'm sure my fellow Alabama fans were that year as well. That started the dreaded streak, from 2002 to 2007 Auburn beat Bama 6 straight times. It felt as if I would never see Bama beat Auburn again. That all changed last year when a over matched Auburn team came into Bryant Denny Stadium and got trounced by a 11-0 Alabama team 36-0. As you can imagine I was elated. This year it seems almost the same storyline, The second ranked and 11-0 Crimson Tide will go into Jordan-Hare Stadium Friday afternoon looking for their second straight win over the 7-4 Tigers.

Now there are many great rivalries in college football, USC-UCLA, Georgia-Florida, Army-Navy, and of course Ohio State-Michigan. In my honest but yet still a tad biased opinion it just does not get any better than Alabama Auburn. Here's why. I'm not taking anything away from Georgia-Florida or even Ohio State-Michigan but they don't even come close to Bama or Auburn. In this state it is a 365 day war between the two schools. You can go on a Bama message board in March and there is gonna be die hard Alabama and Auburn fans talking trash about a game that is still 8 months away. We live together, go to school together, go to church together. It is a constant battle every day in this state as to who has the better team. Ohio State fans can go to work and more than likely they don't have to sit at there desk and look at a Michigan fan across the way. Same goes for Georgia and Florida. I know my sister has to sit across the dinner table every night and stare at one of the most passionate Auburn fans I have ever met.

My three year old neice has already sworn her alliegence to the Crimson Tide. Now I understand that might seem a little crazy to make a three year old baby girl say Roll Tide and her not understand what she's saying one bit, but welcome to the rivalry. Thats how it goes, Thats how it always has been and always will be. I honestly do have a hatred for Auburn University and most of there fans. Call me immature for being that serious over a game of football. But when you live in the state of Alabama and have grown up around this game all your life, this is what happens. So I can't wait for Friday afternoon at 1:30 when Alabama dons their crimson helmets and white jersey's and Auburn dons their navy blue tops and white helmets with that awful AU on the side. That day the whole state turns their attention to one venue. Its more than you can understand unless you've been around it your whole life. Alabama vs. Auburn, enough said.