re: The BIG 6 vs The BIG 6 ALL-TIME

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That Auburn fires coaches for not beating Alabama?

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yes

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Is there anyone else?

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in reality or just claims?

You could make a legitimate point that Florida, prior to Spurrier, was not truly one of the Big 6. They have 0 SEC titles prior to 1991 (1984 was vacated).

Auburn playing Florida more pretty much accounts for their difference in big six games with Alabama.

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Didn't say that. I was illustrating the point of Auburn playing big time programs more than anybody, while Bama liked to annually pad their record by playing the 3 weakest programs in the SEC, teams that Auburn really didn't play that much

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AU played big 6 teams 20 more times over 120 years. They both played more big 6 games than the others. It's pretty much a wash imo.

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in reality or just claims?

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Lawd, claims could take up 15 pages. Reality.

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But two documented and indisputable facts are the reasons that Alabama went out and hired Bear Bryant and Nick Saban. To end the bleeding of long losing streaks to Auburn.

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Wow. I've never really contemplated that, but you are correct:

1954: AU beats Bama 28-0
1955: AU beats Bama 26-0
1956: AU beats Bama 34-7
1957: AU beat Bama 40-0 **AU wins National Title**

After four consecutive years of losing to Auburn... by a combined score of 128-7... Bama went out and hired the best coach money could buy.

In the four seasons leading up to Bear Bryant being hired at Bama, Auburn had a program record of 33-8-1, compared to Bama who went 8-29-4 during the same four year span.

I would tend to agree that this was the main reason for Alabama going after Bear Braynt. Bryant took over a Kentucky program who had won just 26% of their games in the two years prior to his arrival, and he won 71% over his 8 seasons in Lexington. He then went to College Station to improve the Aggies who had won just 40% of their games in the two seasons before his arrival. Bryant then won 63% of his games at A&M over the next four seasons.

Bryant had a track record of taking abysmal programs and turning them into winners. He was likely the only man who could come to Tuscaloosa and turn the program around at that time.

Fast forward to the years just before Saban's arrival in Tuscaloosa:

2002- AU beats Bama 17-7
2003- AU beats Bama 28-23
2004- AU beats Bama 21-13 **AU wins SEC Championship**
2005- AU beats Bama 28-18
2006- AU beats Bama 22-15

After Auburn had won five consecutive Iron Bowls, Bama realized they had to hire the best coach in the land after whiffing on their previous four hires.

Over the course of these 5 seasons, Auburn racked up a program record of 50-14, compared to Alabama who was just 36-27 on the field during that era.

I've always thought that Auburn would have never had the success they've had in recent years (i.e. the 2010 National Title and the 2013 National Title appearance) had they not been forced to deal with Nick Saban's presence in-state. That's still true. But you are correct that had Auburn no so thoroughly dominated Bama in the 4-5 seasons prior to both Bryant's and Saban's hirings, Bama may have never gone out there and hired those two men to be their coach.

It's proof that the rivalry is actually very healthy for both Alabama and Auburn. They push eachother constantly to be better.

Top 15 all-time is a good enough feat by itself, but considering we share a state the size of Alabama with one of the top 3 all-time programs... most would objectively say that's impressive, and makes Alabama's accomplishments more impressive as well.

We may be your little brother, but we're the strongest little brother out there, and stronger than most state's big brother

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It's proof that the rivalry is actually very healthy for both Alabama and Auburn. They push eachother constantly to be better.

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I'm not arguing this, but to say Alabama went out to hire two of some of the best HC's in CFB history solely because of what Auburn did to Alabama is delusional.

Alabama seasons under Jennings B. Whitworth
1955- 0-10
1956- 2-7-1
1947- 2-7-1

Just to throw another, before Whitworth, Harold Drew went 4-5-2.

Under Shula, Alabama had a 1-11 record vs LSU, Tennessee, and Auburn. Here are his seasons:

2003- 4-9
2004: 6-6
2005: 10-2 (largely due to a senior laden team)
2006: 6-7

So half of his tenure at UA he had a losing season. He also couldn't recruit and had 14 losses vs ranked opponents.

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We fired our coach because we were TERRIBLE against EVERYONE

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Makes as much sense as any Bama fan claiming Tubberville and Chizik were fired because they lost to Alabama. Both ended 5-7 and 3-9 and were nearly destroyed by everyone.

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It's proof that the rivalry is actually very healthy for both Alabama and Auburn. They push eachother constantly to be better

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Exactly my point

That's why I don't understand all the Bama fans getting upset about it. They act like their program is infallible and I'm just trying to troll them. In reality I'm just pointing out how the two programs push each other and are good for each other.

Without Auburn, if Bama had the state to themselves, it's reasonable they would be a very average program. Alabama is not a big state and both AU and UA have overachieved big time compared to the size and resources.
Look at Kentucky. Their state is almost the same population. Only in the last 10-15 years has Louisville been relevant in football, so for most of their history Kentucky didn't have a rival to push them. IMO they've suffered for it. Only since Louisville's emergence has Kentucky focused a lot of energy on football, but at this point it's too little too late.

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We may be your little brother, but we're the strongest little brother out there, and stronger than most state's big brother

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On this we can agree.