Auburn Football: Why Are the Auburn Tigers Being Ignored in the Preseason Hype?

Many Auburn fans are looking at preseason polls and wondering why their Tigers are being overlooked or seemingly disrespected.

For once, this transgression is not the fault of the media. There is a very logical reason why this is happening this year.

Until news that the Cecil Newton case would break in the media somewhere around June of 2010, Auburn has worked on stopping the flow of information from the team. They have slowly and surely shut down the flow of accurate information that was forthcoming.

The Auburn players have become more media savvy in their conversations that might be overheard and when using social media to communicate. The well of information has all but dried up at this point.

There are a few promising tidbits that escape, but not much a national media representative can sink their teeth into.

The only source of information for such media as Athlon, ESPN and Phil Steele for their preseason polls and rankings is what many refer to as coaches speak.

Basically, what the staff has mentioned on the speaking circuit is all these media types have to go on.

The media is very paranoid overall when they can’t hide behind unnamed sources. The Auburn staff has released very little specific information on the team or players. This has made the national media very cautious at any evaluations concerning Auburn.

ESPN has basically only focused on what players Auburn lost after last season. Phil Steele decided to simply not evaluate Auburn at all. Athlon placed Auburn in a cautious position in the same neighborhood as last season. Other preseason polls are bound to do the same.

Auburn will not be properly ranked as the 2011 season approaches. This is not due to disrespect for the national champions.

There is less information available on Auburn for 2011 than any other major football program in the nation.

Any logical football fan can easily understand why Auburn has gone in this direction. An overzealous and unscrupulous media twisted any accurate information from the program in the last year.

They chose to use what turned out to be false rumors to discredit public announcements from university officials. They speculated incessantly on false rumors and besmirched the reputation of the university at every opportunity.

There is no reason to assume that any information allowed from the program would be used in a competent manner to evaluate the team. There is also every reason to believe that every shred of information made available to the media would be used to further tarnish and degrade the image of the program and damage the confidence of the players in that program.

Auburn has closed all practices and it seems the players have been well schooled in what information is not allowed to be discussed. This is likely a trend that will continue at Auburn as no upside is apparent from releasing the information used to evaluate the program.

In 2009 and coming into the 2010 season, Gene Chizik plainly stated for Auburn fans to be cautious in their expectations. He warned against expecting too much. In 2009 he commented on not having the numbers and talent needed to compete for championships.

In 2010, Coach Chizik mentioned that the team must step it up a level if they expected to compete for championships. During the 2011 offseason, the prevailing statement from Coach Chizik has been that Auburn’s goal is to compete for championships every year.

The staff has mentioned that the team is largely young and has a lot of hard work ahead to improve. No one on the staff has warned Auburn fans to curb expectations for 2011. No one on the staff has mentioned not having the talent or numbers to compete for championships.

The sparse information that has leaked out from the program has been very promising. Tidbits like incoming freshman Christian Westerman bench pressing 440 pounds seems to indicate that this is a team that is focused and working hard in the off season.

While it is very unlikely that any in the media will be given the access needed to properly analyze the 2011 Auburn team in the preseason, fans can be comforted in the knowledge that hard work continues on the plains.