They’ve met a total of five times, only once as conference mates, but ESPN’s already labeling Alabama-Texas A&M a “rising rivalry”.
Oh, and what a coincidence there’s no mention of Alabama-Tennessee or Auburn-Georgia on that list.
You can’t stop ESPN’s narrative. You can only hope to contain it.
Filed under ESPN Is The Devil, SEC Football
Get The Picture 
Bama would still rather beat Auburn, and maybe TN, but they have to beat A&M this year. With that rediculously easy schedule, Bama may have a hard time maintaining the top spot in the polls.
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Do you seriously expect that an undefeated Bama could be hopped over by a similarly undefeated squad? As I peruse the Top 10, I feel the only team to perhaps do that would be UGa. Which EsPN will welcome I’m sure.
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IMO, Oregon could do just that.
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Hmmmm … Maybe only the Ducks based on their athletic “connections” but I can’t see that happening until Nov. if they hammer an unbeaten Stanford. Of course, they should have the SEC scalp if UT to polish their street cred by then.
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It will be interesting to watch tOSU maintain its poll position with that schedule.
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Bet it will, since the Media needs an entrenched Rust Belt presence for “balance”.
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Bama will be #1 until they get beaten. The debate comes when Oregon and tOSU win out but a SEC drops a game.
Bama is gonna roll A&M this year, and the media will have to find something new to talk about. I’d like to see the UT/Bama game mean something agin
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Totally agree. Alabama has deserved it though as far as I’m concerned.
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Eurasia has ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH Eastasia. Get with the program, Senator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I found nothing in that article to disagree with, amazing for any ESPN assessment from a WWL source. They mentioned that A&M/Bama was a rising rivalry and that Bama/TN was one that had fallen down the list. From a UGA standpoint I could challenge that UGA/AU still deserves a mention, and that UGA/FU was hotly contested several of those years during the “dark period” but overall the piece seemed pretty balanced to me.
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How does two teams playing each other twice in the last 25 years constitute a rivalry, rising or otherwise?
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Because it increases advertising rates.
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Because: it is identified as “rising” and that seems undisputable: 1) A&M, a team with great tradition, went into the Lion’s den and took a strong Tide team down last year, 2) both being in the West insure they will play annually (based on current divisions), and 3) Texas is a hot bed of football talent, even more so than Florida insuring they are almost guaranteed to have strength matchups similar to Bama/LSU in the futue. While I understand the traditionalist view that it hasn’t been around since Moby Dick was a minnow, it would be remiss if not listed given the certainty of many quality, annual matchups. I could understand your questioning the Egg Bowl before this listing. Just a different point of view I guess.
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A minnow? More like a zygote.
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Old Fart! Even if they hadn’t played before last season I wouldn’t contest the “rising rivalry”. No brainer to me but it may take awhile to work itself into some street cred. Looks like a “can’t miss”, and still will after Bama stomps a mud hole in them on Sept. 14…..with or without Li’l Johnny.
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Why stop there? How about a fertilized egg still in the tube?
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Senator, the reason ESPN didn’t mention the Auburn-Georgia rivalry or the Bama-UT rivalry games is simple. ESPN wants them to go away. Those 2 games, more than anything else, keep the SEC from doing away with the whole cross-divisional rivalry game thing. The suits at ESPN and I submit the suits at SEC HQ want other “rivalries” to take precedence over the real things so they can switch to 9 conference games with 2 rotating crossover games.
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9 conference games would allow 2 games to crossover and keep the 1 traditional rivalry. It’s the 8 games that’s the problem.
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Ooops. I meant do away with crossover games entirely, which is what they really want.
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When that happened to Fidel he called it ….. the Special Period.
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When that happened here in 2008, we called it…… Austerity, Bitches!
“In August 1990 the government announced the implementation of the “Special Period” (período especial), a series of contingency plans conceived originally for use during a time of war. The período especial established a framework within which to implement a new series of austerity measures and new rationing schedules to meet the worsening economic crisis.”
http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/havana/lperez2.htm
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Auburn and Georgia as rivals? They aren’t even in the same division!
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SOS agrees!
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Auburn hasn’t played against UGA for a couple years now.
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Ba da boom!
Try the veal, folks, he’ll be here all week. 😉
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Well done.
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@WarD Eagle: Good one. @Mike Sanders: You’re kidding, right?
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Notice the writer is for their Gator site. Hence the complete lack of perspective on the history of rivalries in the SEC.
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Gators…a proud history since 1990.
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Forgive me for hijacking the thread, but I was wondering if someone could answer a question for me. How does the “camp” portion of fall practice differ from the rest of fall practice? I know camp ends when classes begin, but what are the limitations put on the players during camp? Don’t they pretty much live at Butts Mehre during that time?
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Once school starts, the 20 hour rule goes into effect, which includes practice, meetings, and supervised lifting. In camp, they can pretty much meet as much as they want. Numbers of practices and such are still limited for heat/health concerns, but they can have a million walk-thrus and film sessions. They can feed them a different way during camp, too, as they are limited in what they can do at the training table in school.
I also believe the guys live in dorms during camp, but many of the upperclassmen moved into off-campus apartments over the weekend. So, yes, they pretty much live at the Butts-Mehre during camp with practice, meetings, walk-thrus and such.
Back when we were on the old quarter system, it could be used as a huge advantage. When we used to open with the Cocks and Vols in the early 90s, we didn’t usually have to start classes till the 3rd game, so we had unlimited time in film and practices. Of course, that didn’t seem to help us too much versus the Vols back then.
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Why is the Uron Bowl ioncluded? If the South’s Oldest Footbal Rivalry doesn’t make it, Alabama vs Auburn is no more copmpetitive. I do assume we are talking about the actual GAMES here, not the crazy behaviors of the addled fan bases ….
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LOL, typos are after me today!
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The latter. Auburn v. Alabama more serious fan fatalities/injuries than LSU v. Alabama but only because it’s been around longer
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