re: Do you view the Auburn football program as a national power?

Perceived? Yes. But in reality I'm not so sure.

I mean if you go back to the beginning of the decade, both Auburn and Clemson each have one National Title. They also both played for and lost a very close game in a second National Title Game.

Now here we are going into 2018, and both Clemson and Auburn should both find themselves starting the year in the Preseason Top 10, albeit with Clemson a bit higher up... likely at #2 while Auburn should come in around #10.

Based on those facts above, is there really much of a difference?

I think Clemson under Dabo sometimes gets a bit too much credit than they really deserve because they play in a much easier conference.... and aside from a couple of seasons when FSU had Jameis Winston, they've not really had any stiff competition in their own league.

Sure, Clemson has a much better overall record so far this decade, but they've had a MUCH easier road to get there. When you strip away the the SOS factor, there really isn't much of a difference.

Since 2010:

*Clemson has 14 fewer losses than Auburn.

*Both Clemson and Auburn each have lost 9 games to teams that finished the year outside the Top 25.

*Meanwhile Auburn has faced 18 teams that finished in the AP Top 5 so far this decade, while Clemson has faced just 8. That's an extremely large difference. Auburn actually has more wins (4) than Clemson (3) does this decade over Final Top 5 teams.

Clemson has been the beneficiary of playing in the ACC.... playing in the SEC is much, much more difficult.

I think there are plenty of SEC teams that would have had similar success as Clemson if given their schedule and their conference.... Georgia, Auburn, and LSU are all in that boat.