AU Fans Exposed

#9 -- "Alabama has no claim to the national title for 1941."

Apparently, the NCAA disagrees with Auburn fans on this point. The "NCAA Football Records Book" lists Alabama as the recipient of the national title under the Houlgate System in 1941. (You need Adobe Acrobat to view it. It's free to download at this site.

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Contrary to Auburn fans' beliefs, the Houlgate System was not a fly-by-night poll overrun with Alabama supporters. In fact, it was a math-based system (like the current BCS formula) devised by Dick Houlgate, a Dartmouth math major. When first published in 1927, Houlgate's system was the very first systematic approach to determining a national champion in college football history. It predated the next oldest system, devised by Dick Dunkel, by two years, and predated the AP poll by a decade. It was carried by The Football Thesaurus and Football Illustrated from coast to coast for thirty-two years. It is currently recognized not only by the NCAA, but also by most prestigious college football historians, publications and databases, including Sports Illustrated and the Internet-based College Football Data Warehouse and WAJL10.

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Moreover, the Houlgate system's national championships are recognized by many of the top programs in college football, including Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Tennessee and Georgia.

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The Houlgate System also selected All-Americans, and college football programs across the nation laud their Houlgate All-Americans on their websites.

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Indeed, teams in the Southeastern Conference (including Auburn itself) recognize the validity of the 1934 National Title awarded to Alabama by, among others, the Houlgate System.

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Most Auburn fans point out that Alabama was ranked twentieth in the 1941 AP poll. However, there is ample reason to doubt the AP's legitimacy in 1941. In the first place, the AP was only five years old, compared to the relatively venerable Houlgate, which had been around nearly fifteen years by that time. Second, the AP was issued prior to the bowl games, in which numerous teams in the poll did not even participate, and numerous teams that did participate lost.

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A good example of the problems with the 1941 AP poll is Northwestern, which, although ranked 11th in the final AP poll, at 5-3 had a winning percentage that was 58th in the nation.

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But apart from Houlgate's obvious validity and any questions about the validity of the 1941 AP poll, it is very possible that Alabama was the best team in the country in 1941 whether Houlgate had recognized it or not. Alabama in 1941 played, and BEAT, more of the teams in the final AP poll than any other team.

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You can check the scores of the other teams in the poll here.

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Finally, Alabama soundly beat Texas A&M, ranked 9th in the final AP poll, in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

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All of these factors further suggest the unreliability of the 1941 AP poll, as well as the quality of Alabama's 1941 team. In the end, Auburn fans' insistence that Alabama could not have been the best team in the nation can be seen for what it is: the jealous criticism of a team self-conscious of its own historical success.

#8 -- "We play tougher teams than Alabama."

Not even close. Take a look at the Top 10 winningest teams of all time by percentage.

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Now take a look at how many times Auburn and Alabama have played these teams.

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You'll notice that Alabama has played the ten winningest teams of all-time more than TWICE as often as Auburn. Case closed.

#7 -- "Unlike Alabama, we invented Southern football."

Fact is, football had been played in the South for over a decade by the time Auburn and Georgia teed it up in 1892. Kentucky has been playing football since 1881.

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In addition, Vanderbilt started playing football in 1890, two years before Auburn v. Georgia I.

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This point generally forces Auburn fans to qualify their lie, stating that, "Well, we're the longest-running rivalry in the South." But that's not true either. Virginia/North Carolina, Baylor/TCU and Texas/Texas A&M have played more games than Auburn/Georgia.

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Confronted with this reality, Auburn fans generally start in with, "Well, those places aren't really in the South...." at which point rational listeners see where the conversation is headed and tune them out.

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#6 -- "Unlike Alabama, we are not a corrupt program."

This is a funny one. Auburn was the first school in the SEC to go on probation for football. They enjoy the rare distinction of being put on probation twice in a single year, which no team in NCAA history besides Auburn has ever experienced. They are second in the nation in football probations with five. They have been put on probation a total of 13 years since January 1957, or *30%* of the time for the last 44 years. From 1957 to 1995, Auburn was on probation 33% of the time. That's a year of probation out of every three for nearly forty years! Auburn's six probations in that span work out to an average of a probation every six years or so, with an average length of over two years. From 1951 to 1998 -- NEARLY 50 YEARS -- Auburn didn't have a single head football coach who didn't operate under probation at some point.

https://goomer.ncaa.org/wdbctx/LSDBi/LSDBi.MajorInfPackage.SearchAndDisplayList?p_School1=AUBURN+UNIVERSITY&p_School_Num1=37&p_School2=&p_School_Num2=&p_Division=0&p_Date_Radio=1&p_Month1=JAN&p_Day1=1&p_Year1=1953&p_Month2=MAY&p_Day2=18&p_Year2=2001&p_Sport1=Any&p_SportAndOr_1=0&p_Sport2=Any&p_SportAndOr_2=0&p_Sport3=Any&p_TV_Penalty=10&p_Postseason_Penalty=10&p_Probation_Penalty=10&p_Bylaw_Division=0&p_bylaw_radio1=0&p_Bylaw=0&p_Article=&p_Contains_Clause1=1&p_SearchWords1=&p_Inword1=heading&p_Boolean1=and&p_Contains_Clause2=1&p_SearchWords2=&p_Inword2=heading&p_Boolean2=and&p_Contains_Clause3=1&p_SearchWords3=&p_Inword3=heading&p_Button=Go+Search

Auburn is the only school in SEC history to go on probation for their tennis program.

https://goomer.ncaa.org/wdbctx/LSDBi/LSDBi.MajorInfPackage.DisplayMICase?p_PkValue=108&p_HeadFoot=1&p_CallCount=1&p_Name=Auburn%20University&p_HeadingTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_SummaryTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_PenaltyTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_PublicTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_AppealTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated

By contrast, Alabama has only had one probation in 108 years of athletics.

https://goomer.ncaa.org/wdbctx/LSDBi/LSDBi.MajorInfPackage.DisplayMICase?p_PkValue=160&p_HeadFoot=1&p_CallCount=1&p_Name=University%20of%20Alabama,%20Tuscaloosa&p_HeadingTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_SummaryTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_PenaltyTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_PublicTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated&p_AppealTerms=ThisIsADummyPhraseThatWillNotBeDuplicated

#5 -- "Unlike Alabama, we are more than just a football school."

Sorry, Auburn fans. The facts just don't back you up. Alabama leads the series in every single head-to-head sport played by both schools (i.e., non-"meet" sports, such as swimming, golf and track).

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Moreover, Alabama leads the SEC in postseason appearances in football and is #3 in the SEC behind Kentucky and Arkansas in basketball, and #3 in the SEC behind LSU and Georgia in baseball. Auburn only makes the top half in baseball, where it is no. 5 in post-season appearances.

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And not even Auburn fans believe they are anything but a football school. Their ticket line (for ANY sport) is 1-800-AUB-1957, referencing the school's lone football national title.

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In 2000-2001, Auburn fans rejoiced at a banner year in their rivalry with Alabama, because they were 5-1 against Alabama in the three major sports (football, baseball and men's basketball). They went 2-11 against Alabama in every other sport, however.

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You'd think, if they were truly not just a football school, they'd have been disappointed with a 7-12 showing in all sports. But no. And why not? Because they're a football school, and nothing more.

#4 -- "Bama is always overrated, and we are always underrated."

Chris Stassen, generally regarded as one of the premier college football statisticians of the Internet age, conducted a study of preseason vs. final rankings since 1989. It took a fall by Alabama from preseason #3 to unranked in 2000 to even out years of Alabama being underrated. By contrast, even after a rise from being unranked to #18 by Auburn in 2000, Auburn is still the second most overrated team in the SEC and among the 18 most overrated teams in the nation for the last 12 years.

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#3 -- "Unlike Alabama fans and their 'Roll Tide," we know what 'War Eagle' means."

Auburn University isn't sure what "War Eagle" means, how could Auburn fans be? The University itself identifies at least four possible origins of the phrase.

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It's should be noted that possibility no. 4 as listed by the University (frankly, the most plausible of the possible origins) suggests that the cry has a Native American origin. Since no one is sure of the correct origin, it's at least possible that Auburn fans are using a Native American battle cry. One wonders whether Auburn will follow the suggestion of Charles Whitcomb, NCAA Minority Interests and Opportunities Committee, in doing away with "War Eagle" rather than risk offending Native American groups. Somehow, we all know the answer.

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#2 -- "We never boo or leave early like Alabama fans."

Just isn't true. In fact, the booing and early departures were so bad at Auburn's 1998 game against Virginia IN AUBURN, that the Virginia student newspaper made a note of it.

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#1 -- "Legion Field isn't neutral."

This one's a little odd. Auburn fans insist that although Legion Field is an hour from the Alabama campus (but only two and a half hours from the Auburn campus), Legion Field is not a neutral site. This despite the fact that Auburn itself played "home" games against out-of-state opponents from Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Massachussetts at Legion Field through the late 1970s. Moreover, they played teams such as Tulane and Alabama in Montgomery as a "neutral" site, even though Montgomery is closer to the Auburn campus than Legion Field is to the Alabama campus.

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In fact, the Auburn athletic department's own website acknowledges that Legion Field was a neutral site until ticket allocations changed in 1988.

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For 80% of their history, Auburn claimed Legion Field as "home" when convenient. They treated a field closer to Auburn than Legion Field is to Tuscaloosa as "neutral" for years. Now they're not even willing to call Legion Field "neutral." Once again, it's nothing more than a lie.