For Paul Finebaum, there is no rivalry in college football greater than Alabama and Auburn. He says this, of course, with no disrespect to Michigan and Ohio State fans.
Saturday is the greatest weekend of college football rivalries on the schedule with Michigan (10-1) at Ohio State (10-1) in the early game and Alabama (10-1) at Auburn (6-5) in the late afternoon. Finebaum, a popular ESPN analyst, says there is no competition for what is the best rivalry in all of college football. It is the one he has covered intimately over the past four decades.
It is Alabama and Auburn. Hands down.
“It’s always been that game. There used to be that time when there was an off week before divisional play,” Finebaum told ‘Rutgers Wire.’
“We’re about to enter the two biggest weeks of the year.”
What makes this weekend’s rivalry clashes in the Big Ten and the SEC so important this year is that for everyone but struggling Auburn, a spot in the College Football Playoff is on the line. The loser of the Big Ten clash, for instance, likely won’t be heading to the playoff.
The Michigan-Ohio State game has carried tremendous weight throughout the years. For many years, the winner of this game would book a ticket to the Rose Bowl.
Now with conference championship games and more bowl tie-ins, some of that luster is lost for these rivalry games. But Finebaum still thinks that the ‘Iron Bowl’ is the king of the roost when it comes to rivalry games in college football.
Even, he says, if the times are changing.
“I still think it’s the biggest game but when you have a game afterwards as important as the SEC game, it diminishes it a little bit. Forty years ago this week, one of the biggest I’ve covered happened, that’s when Paul Bryant won his 315th game which broke the record by Amos Alonzo Staggs. I’ll never forget that as long as I live. That was one of the biggest events of my life, covering a game like that,” Finebaum said.
“I’ve seen it from both sides. For the people of the state it has so much meaning because it was that game that you talked about all year long. I don’t think it has quite that importance for a lot of reasons – title games, playoffs, etc. But it’s still the most special game I’ve ever been to.”
Bigger, he says, than that Big Ten game earlier in the day.
“I break out laughing when I’m on a show, often Desmond Howard or one of my other colleagues tries to convince me that it’s Ohio State vs. Michigan is bigger. It’s not. And there’s a lot of reasons why it’s not. There are parts of Ohio, Toledo to be exact, that roots for Michigan. It’s on the border,” Finebaum said.
“It’s a great game, I’m not here to diminish the importance of that game. But you have two separate states. This game is unique for all the reasons you hear and it is true. You have all these peoples living in the same state. You have these local TV reporters interviews ‘We have a mixed marriage here, we have a divided family here.’ What does that mean? It means you have an Auburn-Alabama family. I’ve interviewed countless people, I’ve written books that involve that. For that reason, it is so important. “Alabama doesn’t have the things that Michigan and Ohio do. There are professional teams all over the states of Michigan and Ohio. Alabama has the Alabama and Auburn game.”
