Auburn-Alabama bigger than just bragging rights

AUBURN, Ala. -- The popular cliche among Auburn fans during Iron Bowl week is that it doesn’t matter whether the Tigers’ record is 11-0 or 0-11, beating Alabama defines the season.
More than just bragging rights are on the line this year, however.
The Tigers (11-0, 7-0 SEC) have bigger goals in mind when they travel to Bryant-Denny Stadium this afternoon. At No. 2 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, their national title hopes hang in the balance.

"It’s one of those games where if we win, it’s like everything we did was really worth it," running back Mike Dyer said. "If we lose, it’s like I don’t really know if 11-0, 10-0, 9-0 is really that big of a deal."

It’s not often that Auburn has had this much riding on the Iron Bowl. Since the series resumed on a yearly basis in 1948, the Tigers have been undefeated heading into the Alabama game six times. They’re 4-2 in those contests.
Ralph "Shug" Jordan led unbeaten Auburn to wins in 1957 and ’58, the former resulting in the school’s only national championship, a shared title with Ohio State.
The 1971 contest was the highest both teams have been ranked heading into the matchup. Third-ranked Alabama prevailed, 31-7, over fifth-ranked Auburn, although both would be exposed in lopsided bowl game losses.
An undefeated Auburn split the 1993 and ’94 games, although NCAA sanctions cast a pall over the rivalry, preventing the Tigers from going to a bowl game and making a legitimate claim for the national championship in ’93.
And in 2004, the No. 2-ranked Tigers won, 21-13, in Tuscaloosa on their way to a perfect 13-0 season, which is best remembered for BCS complications that kept Auburn out of a national title game won by Southern California and eventually vacated after the Reggie Bush fallout.
This year’s road to the national title is less muddled: keep winning and Auburn is in.
The Tigers have a healthy lead on No. 3 TCU and No. 4 Boise State in the BCS rankings, the result of computer rankings that favor Auburn’s strength of schedule. Beating Alabama today and South Carolina in the SEC title game next week would guarantee the Tigers a spot in the BCS national championship game.
"Beating (Alabama), I’m not going to sit here and say it means everything in the world, but it does mean a lot to the seniors," center Ryan Pugh said. "We have goals in the season left, and they’re another team that stands in the way of us accomplishing that."
The schools have faced each other five times when both were ranked in the Associated Press top 10. Alabama is 3-2 in those contests.
Ranked ninth in the AP poll and 11th in the BCS rankings, the Crimson Tide remains a formidable challenge. Alabama, after all, is the defending national champion and was the No. 1 team in the country for the first half of the season.
Although the Crimson Tide has two losses this year _ on the road to South Carolina and LSU _ it still hasn’t lost a home game since 2007 against Louisiana-Monroe.
It’s why most oddsmakers opened with Alabama being a 4-point favorite.
"Even though we’ve had a winning record this year, people still expect us to lose," Auburn left guard Mike Berry said. "We still carry that as a chip on our shoulder."
It has helped the Tigers not look past their arch rival, even though bigger and better things could be down the road.
"If you look too far ahead, then you get beat," Berry said. "And then you’re out of it.