Thoughts

Recently, there was an article out about Auburn's refusal to schedule big non conference opponents. I agree that Auburn has been pretty weak in this area. Our non conference games in the last few years: Citadel, LA Monroe, Ark St, Tenn Tech, La Tech, Tulane, etc. During football season I would wonder why non SEC games were so dull. Bingo, the light comes on. The most exciting non conference game recently I have experienced was last year's opener vs. WSU. I think most of the excitement came from ESPN and being the first game. We easily handled the cougars. If I think back further, the opener vs USC in '03 was pretty exciting, that is until the game started. While I see some improvement in scheduling with home and home series with West Virginia and Clemson in the coming years, and a slight improvement in caliber of teams (South Florida, New Mexico St, Kansas St.), they are still easy wins and uninteresting games for me as a fan. Sure, we lost big to USC in '03, but we almost beat them in LA in '02 with 2 freshmen starting at receiver, a sophomore Cadillac (who struggled with cramps) and an awful JUCO QB in Daniel Cobb. Give me a road opener vs a team that has done something. Tennessee opens with Cal, Arkansas played USC and soon Texas, Florida has Florida St and Miami, USC plays Notre Dame, etc. The bottom line is that the top tier, widely respected teams play top tier, widely respected teams. Until Auburn nuts up and decides to play some of them, we will never get the respect we feel that we deserve. Until then, all we really have to look forward to this year are untelevised home games at 1:30 PM against crappy teams that will send the crowds home early in the 4th quarter and likely will not gain any exposure or highlights on ESPN. We are banishing ourselves the the scroller at the bottom of the screen while Ohio St., Texas, USC and others alike get all the TV time, highlights, and gameday visits. Honestly, Im tired of these early afternoon snoozers. I want to go to a night game that is on TV and yell so hard that I get a migraine every week, not just when we play LSU or Florida or Bama. Every game should feel like the Auburn Florida game last year. It was the most intense, exciting, deafening game Ive ever been a part of and its one of my fondest memories as a student and Auburn fan. If we want gameday to come to Auburn, we need to give them more than just one chance when we play LSU or 'Bama. I always complain about no respect, but now Im thinking Ill quit complaining about ESPN and start with the Athletics Dept. The reality is that other than our SEC games, we do nothing to earn any respect. When I turn on Sportscenter, I dont like to see highlights of LSU murdering Tulane. I dont think other fans want to see Auburn handling the Citadel (not that there is any tape of it anyway). Its time to stop blaming ESPN and pollsters, and start looking inward.