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re: Most Important Football Games in SEC History
Posted on 4/26/26 at 3:45 pm to captdalton
Posted on 4/26/26 at 3:45 pm to captdalton
In a similar manner... I have to throw out the 1969 Alabama Mississippi game.
ABC decided to piggyback a nationally televised game on top of the Lawrence Welk Show.... which was the #1 Saturday night program in the country at that time.
Alabama and Mississippi delivered with a 33-32 classic with offensive numbers that were unheard of at that time. Archie Manning on display and he played out of his mind. But Hunter and Musso did the same and delivered the victory for Alabama in Birmingham.
Ratings were off the charts and that game basically introduced the rest of the nation to SEC football on the grandest of scales.
ABC decided to piggyback a nationally televised game on top of the Lawrence Welk Show.... which was the #1 Saturday night program in the country at that time.
Alabama and Mississippi delivered with a 33-32 classic with offensive numbers that were unheard of at that time. Archie Manning on display and he played out of his mind. But Hunter and Musso did the same and delivered the victory for Alabama in Birmingham.
Ratings were off the charts and that game basically introduced the rest of the nation to SEC football on the grandest of scales.
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Posted on 4/26/26 at 3:55 pm to Pauldingtiger
For UGA and LSU, the Alabama losses in 2012 (regular season for LSU) are the most important lynch pins resulting in Kirby's run and 2019 for the Tigers.
Richt wins that game, UGA destroys ND in the natty, and there is no way he is moving on from UGA 3 years later even if there is a similar decline after 2012. UGA does not get Kirby.
LSU wins, likely loses to UGA in Atlanta, but the "Les can't beat Saban" whispers don't start. The decline still happens, but Les can't save his job by beating A&M in 2015, isn't fired in September 2016 - but is likely still fired in 2016 , and Coach O has no chance to win the job after we frick up the coaching search. Without O there, we do not have anything like the 2019 season that year.
In the unlikely hypothetical event where LSU beats UGA in Atlanta, UGA still moves on from Richt and gets Kirby, but LSU beats ND - not as bad as Alabama did or Georgia would have. We would still end up with 1 natty in the 2010s, but would have had to put up with Les for another 3-5 years, and miss out on 2019.
I don't think any of these scenarios changes Alabama's run. Saban still ends up with 5 or 6 or maybe more without Kirby and 2019 LSU standing in his way.
Two damn good games in 2012 in which Alabama was "on the ropes" with less than 5 minutes in the 4th and found a way to rip our hearts out. Change one play late in either of those games going against Alabama, and the last 15 years for UGA and LSU are remarkably different.
Richt wins that game, UGA destroys ND in the natty, and there is no way he is moving on from UGA 3 years later even if there is a similar decline after 2012. UGA does not get Kirby.
LSU wins, likely loses to UGA in Atlanta, but the "Les can't beat Saban" whispers don't start. The decline still happens, but Les can't save his job by beating A&M in 2015, isn't fired in September 2016 - but is likely still fired in 2016 , and Coach O has no chance to win the job after we frick up the coaching search. Without O there, we do not have anything like the 2019 season that year.
In the unlikely hypothetical event where LSU beats UGA in Atlanta, UGA still moves on from Richt and gets Kirby, but LSU beats ND - not as bad as Alabama did or Georgia would have. We would still end up with 1 natty in the 2010s, but would have had to put up with Les for another 3-5 years, and miss out on 2019.
I don't think any of these scenarios changes Alabama's run. Saban still ends up with 5 or 6 or maybe more without Kirby and 2019 LSU standing in his way.
Two damn good games in 2012 in which Alabama was "on the ropes" with less than 5 minutes in the 4th and found a way to rip our hearts out. Change one play late in either of those games going against Alabama, and the last 15 years for UGA and LSU are remarkably different.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 4:20 pm to captdalton
2007 BCS title game 
Posted on 4/26/26 at 4:25 pm to captdalton
bama fans like the OP should really focus on games that happened once they became a bama fan.... so basically once saban arrived.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 4:35 pm to captdalton
quote:
Alabama beat Washington to win their first national championship. But more importantly it changed the perception of Southern football teams.
This is the most over exaggerated myth that exists in all of college football. Washington was an upstart themselves and beating them meant nothing. The myth of “Southern football finally getting respect because the Rose Bowl” was manufactured sometime in the 1980s around the same time bama created a bunch of fake national titles to try to counter the historic appeal that Notre Dame had the market on in those days.
Georgia Tech’s 1917 team was far more widely regarded in that day as the best team the South had ever produced. They were proclaimed as the best team in the country by the New York Times a full decade before Alabama road a train out west to beat a literal upstart from the Pacific Northwest with zero program history or prestige at that point.
This post was edited on 4/26/26 at 4:50 pm
Posted on 4/26/26 at 5:20 pm to AUTiger789
quote:
Washington was an upstart themselves and beating them meant nothing.
The senior class had gone a combined 34-3-4 in their previous 41 games prior to the 1926 Rose Bowl. They had also won their conference three times and had been to the Rose Bowl two years prior. Their star player (George "Wildcat" Wilson) would have been the Heisman Trophy winner had the trophy existed in 1925.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 5:26 pm to AUTiger789
quote:
This is the most over exaggerated myth that exists in all of college football. Washington was an upstart themselves and beating them meant nothing. The myth of “Southern football finally getting respect because the Rose Bowl” was manufactured sometime in the 1980s around the same time bama created a bunch of fake national titles to try to counter the historic appeal that Notre Dame had the market on in those days. Georgia Tech’s 1917 team was far more widely regarded in that day as the best team the South had ever produced. They were proclaimed as the best team in the country by the New York Times a full decade before Alabama road a train out west to beat a literal upstart from the Pacific Northwest with zero program history or prestige at that point.
And this folks, is your classic bitter melt from a jealous boog
Posted on 4/26/26 at 5:28 pm to AUTiger789
quote:
fake national titles
quote:
Auburn Fan
Posted on 4/26/26 at 6:03 pm to AUTiger789
quote:
bama created a bunch of fake national titles
You can no longer talk shite about this ever again. Just last year you guys retroactively claimed seven national championships in an effort to increase your prestige and improve recruiting.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 6:26 pm to Wolfhound45
Wolfie with the big brain!
Posted on 4/26/26 at 6:29 pm to Cheese Grits
You made me work for it
Posted on 4/26/26 at 7:45 pm to SouthernInsanity
quote:
bama fans like the OP should really focus on games that happened once they became a bama fan.... so basically once saban arrived.
So like LSU fans and women’s basketball when Kim Mulkey arrived.
But, if there were no Alabama fans before Saban, where did all the money to pay Alabama players come from?
And do you really want us to focus on the Saban years? He inflicted a lot of pain on LSU.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 8:13 pm to AUTiger789
quote:
This is the most over exaggerated myth that exists in all of college football. Washington was an upstart themselves and beating them meant nothing. The myth of “Southern football finally getting respect because the Rose Bowl” was manufactured sometime in the 1980s around the same time bama created a bunch of fake national titles to try to counter the historic appeal that Notre Dame had the market on in those days.
Georgia Tech’s 1917 team was far more widely regarded in that day as the best team the South had ever produced. They were proclaimed as the best team in the country by the New York Times a full decade before Alabama road a train out west to beat a literal upstart from the Pacific Northwest with zero program history or prestige at that point.
That's too bad for them, isn't it? They didn't make it to the Rose Bowl until the '28 season. They were a little late, weren't they?
Alabama brought the prestige and recognition to Southern football with nationwide exposure and acclaim in the first Rose Bowl played by a Southern team.
Nobody gave a good shite about GT having a good run from 1913-1922. Whenever they stepped out of their regional football they got crapped on by teams like Notre Dame, Washington and Lee, Navy, Penn State, & Pittsburgh (3 times), only furthering the cemented public opinion that Southern teams couldn't compete with Northern teams.
Alabama changed all of that with the first Rose Bowl victory over an impressive opponent not from the South.
I can understand Auburn football fans feeling pitiful and nasty and ugly because their team has never amounted to anything. But, you can't change history with idiotic revisions that don't hold water.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 8:43 pm to captdalton
quote:
But, if there were no Alabama fans before Saban, where did all the money to pay Alabama players come from?
I'm talking bama fans... like yourself. You weren't a bama fan before saban, but hey, you only follow football so you can drop you concerns about everything else.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 8:57 pm to BB Que
quote:
BB Que
quote:
2026
quote:
Posted on 4/26/26 at 9:21 pm to Pauldingtiger
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As far as modern football goes
Interesting list, but how you left 1989 “First Time Ever” off is a mystery. Far more consequential than ‘72 and Punt Bama Punt.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 9:23 pm to AU6X
What was so consequential about it?
Posted on 4/26/26 at 9:25 pm to BB Que
quote:
BB Que
Boom!
Truth bombs for the jealous!
Posted on 4/26/26 at 9:26 pm to Gunga Din
1993 Sugar Bowl. Ended Miami’s dominance in football.
Posted on 4/26/26 at 10:15 pm to Pauldingtiger
quote:
8. 2008 Florida vs Oklahoma
Florida wins, launching an SEC title streak.
The streak started 2 years before that with Florida vs Ohio State.
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