As some of you may know, I LOVE sports. Therefore, I LOVE all the teams I follow. My favorite college football team is the Georgia Bulldogs. I bleed red and black. Whenever anything negative occurs with the team (a loss, a player kicked off the team etc.), I always have a defensive reason or excuse, just ask Reed Simpson. Therefore, I LOVE my team’s conference, the Southeastern Conference or SEC for short. I’ll admit, I am one of those obnoxious fans who believes the level of competition week in and week out is the best this great nation has to offer. The conference’s seven-year national title streak was incredible evidence to back up my biased opinions. On January 7, Heisman trophy winner, Jameis Winston and the Florida State Seminoles thankfully defeated the so-called “team of destiny” , the Auburn Tigers.  Yes, I said thankfully because my hate of Auburn’s classlessness style of play trumps my love of conference. Why, you ask? The team plays after the whistle and appears to attempt to knock the opposing teams’ top players out of the games. Still think I’m biased? Here’s some proof.

It was News Years Day, 2010 in sunny Tampa, Florida. Auburn was taking on Northwestern in the Outback Bowl, a great game throughout. At the end of regulation, the score was tied at 35 a piece. Auburn’s overtime possession concluded with a field goal, giving Northwestern the opportunity to win the game with a touchdown.  They ended up having to settle for a field goal, which is where the Tigers speared one of the Wildcats’ best players, kicker and punter Stefan Demos. Start watching the video at the 8:05 mark. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBxrjT6ViCU).  Way after the ball leaves Demos’ foot, an Auburn player smacks him right in his kneecap, resulting in a torn ACL for Demos. The loss was significant as he was the starting kicker and punter. After his injury, Northwestern was forced to run a fake field goal because they did not have a backup kicker as most college teams don’t have a backup kicker. The depleted Wildcats were unable to score on the play, so Auburn’s got away with intentionally injuring another player. This style of play shames the integrity of the game, and definitely does not encourage high school recruits to play football for an SEC school because they could be targeted to be forced out of a game.

Fast forward to the following season. Against Georgia, Nick Fairley and Auburn brought their dirty act to the Planes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGB1xguTXLg. Whether it was constant late hits, Nick Fairley digging his facemask into Aaron Murray’s (1:30), Cam Newton punching a UGA defender in the face as he’s running out of bounds (2:05), or blatant attempts to a knock a player out of the ballgame,  (3:40), Auburn took every opportunity to illegally gain an upper hand on its opponent.

This year, Auburn succeeded in knocking another team’s best offense player out of an important game. It was December 7, Southeastern Conference Championship day. Auburn was ahead of the Missouri Tigers 45-34 in a battle of offensive juggernauts. Missouri appeared to steal momentum on a 60-yard run by their star junior running back, Henry Josey, but as he stepped out of bounds, disaster struck. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfqiSmyRU1I. After Josey walked out of bounds, he was illegally speared by an Auburn defender and shoved into a medical golf cart. The result was Josey limping off the field, not returning to the game. In the fourth quarter, Mizzou was lacking its run game, leading to three and outs and Auburn scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put the game away.  Winning a game by injuring a team’s top player is not an honorable way to win.Fortunately, Florida State was immune to Auburn’s trickery as they won the title in the last 30 seconds for the national championship.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the kind of quarterbacks Auburn has deployed in their past two runs to the BCS title game. As most football fans would acknowledge, a quarterback is the nominal leader of the team. Auburn picked two criminals to lead their team. University of Florida quarterback Cam Newton was arrested in 2008 for the theft of a laptop from another University of Florida student. Even worse than the theft is that Newton tried to hide it by throwing said laptop out of his window. Newton would then transfer to Auburn after a spending a year at Blinn College in College Station and lead the Tigers to a national championship, but he lead them in the same brash, disrespectful manner that people abhor Richard Sherman for today. This past season, Auburn continued their tradition of using theft convicts at the quarterback position. Nick Marshall was a corner at the University of Georgia, but was expelled from school when he was arrested for stealing money from a teammate. When poor character is inserted into a leadership position, no matter what the organization, the decision comes with a trickle down effect that contains negative consequences. I love the SEC, but the Auburn Thugs were not a worthy champion.