(Results from Rival.com)
I live right in the middle of the Bama-Barn dark world and I can safely say that the Rivals Readers are correct [Rivals]. The Iron Bowl is a whole other level of hate. Bama and AU don’t have to be playing for a national title to hate each other. There’s nothing close to the intensity of an Iron Bowl that features two 7-5 teams let alone an Iron Bowl that actually matters in the SEC race..Let’s ask some questions that establishes rivalry cred:
Does State Law Enforcement have to make public pleas for fathers not to shoot their sons during or after the game [Pinson]? Do emergency rooms have to ramp up with personnel and and supplies for the influx of women that “fall down the trailer steps” or who are missing big clumps of hair from their scalps during other Rivalry games? Nope, only in Alabama and during the Iron Bowl.
Repeat after me: The SEC is clearly superior. Don’t be bringing in the Service Academies and God forbid someone tries to make a case for Michigan-OSU. It is the Big Ten and nobody that really matters gives two shits about Big Ten football except for Kirk Herbstreit.
You’d have to live here to understand it. Does the Mich/OSU consume both the entire state of Ohio and Michigan 365 days a year? Fuck no it doesn’t. Every morning I open up the sports page, there are people bickering over the rivalry in the sound-off, sports columns, and there is always an article about it. There is an article about Alabama or Auburn’s football team in every paper in the state every day. If I see someone wearing Auburn fan gear, it always seems like there is some Alabama fan that just can’t help themselves from making a stupid comment, despite being beat 5 years in a row. When I turn on my radio in the morning or in the afternoon, the Iron Bowl is the primary subject of talk radio 365 days a year.
Why is it bigger? It’s not just because it’s an “intrastate rivalry” but because it’s the biggest event we have here in Alabama. There are no professional football, basketball, or ML baseball teams. People around here care about football first and foremost. Iron Bowl day is bigger than Christmas. Everybody- trust me, EVERYBODY- in the state stops to watch the Iron Bowl in November. You can’t say that everybody celebrates Christmas.
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