Alabama vs. Auburn: Iron Bowl Trumps All College Football Rivalries

It's rivalry week, and again the one game that will rule all will be the Iron Bowl. There is no other game in the nation that will pack as much punch nor mean as much in the grand scheme of things. 

The state will again be divided as the Alabama Crimson Tide take on the Auburn Tigers in a battle for pride, bragging rights and the BCS title. 

The latter only really pertains to Alabama, but you have to trust that it's on the mind of every single Auburn player and fan. If Alabama falls on Saturday, a magical season and one of the best defenses in years will be wasted. 

That fact will make any triumph by Auburn a sweet one for the Tigers faithful. On Saturday, a game that hardly needs any amount of added emotion will get tons. 

This will make for a heated affair that I am confident that Alabama will be on the winning end of.

I would normally list the magnitude of the stage and pressure as a reason Alabama would falter, but this game means too much to the athletes. 

They saw their title hopes all but vanish in a razor-thin clash against LSU. It would be inconceivable that they would let the same thing happen against a lesser Auburn team. 

The only way Auburn upsets is from a complete mental breakdown from Nick Saban's boys, and that is not about to happen. 

Auburn head coach is not about to mince words ahead of the all-important Iron Bowl. He seconded the very notion that Alabama were nearly invincible. 

"

This team, it may be the best out of all three. When you sit there and watch them and you look at how physical they are, how sound they are ...

This is not a good football team, this is a great football team we're playing. It's hard to compare any of the three, but I would say this is very, very similar in comparison to the first team we played back in 2009, if not a little better, in my opinion.

"

Chizik is not about to give any amount of fuel to the fire, but I believe he actually believes what he is selling. Auburn has fared far better than anyone thought they would after the magical year they just enjoyed. 

The fact that an upset is a possibility is a testament to how hard this team has played and how well the younger players have matured. 

However, there is no getting past the ground and pound of Alabama. They are simply a machine that will roll through and decimate. 

The fact that Auburn and its fans will travel in droves and fail to give up to the bitter end has me captivated. This is one of the best rivalries in sports.

This weekend, one team could lose the whole season with one little slip-up. I almost feel guilty in getting such a ridiculously fun game to watch.