In addition to their 2 nationally recognized championships, Auburn's college football program is now retroactively recognizing 7 additional national championships.
Auburn's athletic director released a statement discussing the decision:
So honorable. John Cohen and Auburn truly standing up for the little guy. We refuse to remain humble and compliant. We're taking back what's ours!
To say this is incredibly corny and lame would be understating it, I think.
As far as a title claim from over 100 years ago, whatever dude. You can have it. Anything predating the first world war just isn't going to land on my radar in terms of things to make fun of.
Claiming 2004 is where it gets comedic. I get Auburn was 13-0 that year. I get the the BCS was flawed. Yes, USC ended up vacating the title.
Guess what bruv? The computer didn't love you enough that year. I can't go back and watch highlights of your team playing in the title game because you weren't in the game to begin with.
Also, if you're factoring in USC cheating as just claiming a title that's up for grabs, then you have no stake in 1993, because you also cheated that year and got banned from the post season.
It's just sad that this current administration has decided to lie to the next generation of Auburn fans.
I can see it clear as day. 20 years from now, 7-year old little Jimmy is well on his way to becoming the next Auburn Tigers super fan. His pappy, his pappy's pappy, and his pappy's pappy's pappy, were amongst the most faithful of Auburn fans. It's ingrained in his DNA.
Little Jimmy want's to relive the history of his favorite team. He wants to go back and revisit every time his Tigers were the kings of the college football world. He pulls out his gameday program and screams "WAR EAGLE".
He navigates to YouTube and types "2004 National Championship Auburn Tigers" in the search bar.
He becomes horrified. After hours of searching and scrolling, he finds no evidence of his beloved war eagle's hoisting that crystal football. Just a non-competitive game between USC and Oklahoma.
Tears begin to stream down Little Jimmy's face. He's come to terms with the fact that his favorite team had lied to him, and in the process making him feel like a dumb stupid idiot moron. He rids his room of all Auburn memorabilia, and decides to take his allegiances elsewhere. Truly heart breaking.
Akin to Auburn's retroactive crown snatching was when UCF claimed a national title for themselves in 2017.
The Knights posted a 12-0 regular season record, but were ultimately left out of the 4 team college football playoff. In the aftermath of the committees decision, UCF's athletic director Danny White claimed that they were the true National Champions.
At the time, this all kind of felt like a WWE storyline to me. Drum up some notoriety for the schools football program, have some fanfare, "WOO we're #1!" rah rah silliness. Knowing in the end you weren't actually the real champions. It just felt like a meme.
Fast forward a couple years later. The homies and I are chilling on the beach in South Carolina. Next to us was a group of UCF students, and after a couple of pigskin tosses, we had broken bread with some new acquaintances.
Things were smooth sailing. Vibes were good. Until the topic of the 2017 national championship came up. That's where things went south.
Our group poked some fun at what we deemed was a "fake" national title. It wasn't anything malicious. I think we all assumed they were in on the joke.
They did NOT think it was funny.
They basically moved their entire operation to a different spot on the beach at that point. It was clear that they now hated us. We were all shocked. They really thought they were the champions of 2017.
This type of participation trophy culture needs to be punished in some form or fashion. Loss of scholarships, post season bans, relegation to Division 3. Literally anything. The virtual trail of evidence is too larger to be staking any claims post 2000. You just look like a goof who's trying too hard.
-WhataMark