Bama Central

The Agony and the Ecstasy: Alabama, Auburn Reactions to 2023 Iron Bowl

All Things CW: Let the spectacular finish between the Crimson Tide and Tigers serve as a reminder of just how important rivalries are to college football.

Christopher Walsh

In this story:

Dear powers that be in college football:

We offer the following as testimony to the importance of rivalries in the sport, which are more and more being ignored and disappearing. 

With playoff expansion and conferences shuffling, we're about to lose classic annual games like Bedlam: Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, Oregon-Oregon State, Washington-Washington State, and the "Bear Bowl" between UCLA and Cal. 

We regain Texas vs. Texas A&M next year, but at the cost of the Longhorns against Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU. We now have Stanford and Cal-Berkeley in the Atlantic Coast Conference even though they're on the other ocean. We got used to seeing Penn State against Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State annually, only that won't happen any more. 

"There's a lot of traditions that we've had for a long time in college football," Nick Saban said earlier this year. "I think we're in a time of evolution for whatever reasons. Some of those traditions are going to get, sort of, pushed by the wayside, I think. It's sad."

We strongly urge you to keep this in mind moving forward, because even though the ending of Saturday's game at Jordan-Hare Stadium was pretty amazing, it was even more jaw-dropping because it happened between the Alabama Crimson Tide and rival Auburn. That's why there was so much joy, and, on the 10-year anniversary of the Kick Six, so much pain. 

We'll start with how ESPN announcers Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler reacted while calling another game Saturday night:

Alabama

Warning: This one has NSFW language ... 

Auburn 

Finally, we'll leave you with two lasting things: 

Christopher Walsh's notes column All Things CW regularly appears on BamaCentral

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Christopher Walsh
CHRISTOPHER WALSH

Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of BamaCentral, which first published in 2018. He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004, and is the author of 26 books including Decade of Dominance, 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, Nick Saban vs. College Football, and Bama Dynasty: The Crimson Tide's Road to College Football Immortality. He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.

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