SEC West Rings!? Auburn, You’re Better Than That

Image Twitter @AuburnFootball

When you think about football in the South, what comes to mind?

Is it the traditions? The pageantry? The passion? Those are all good answers, but the first thing that comes to my mind is sheer dominance.

We understand what our neighbors in the state have done in the world of college football over the past 9 seasons; it has been sheer dominance. But we are not here to talk about how good our rivals are. I’m here to talk about Auburn and how we need to go about celebrating our accomplishments.

Yesterday the @AuburnFootball twitter account posted a picture of the rings the football team got for last year. Wait, they got a ring? For what? Yes, they got rings for winning the Western Division in the Southeastern Conference.

Now I realize Auburn’s not the only SEC school to be awarded rings for winning a division, but should the Tigers be flaunting them around like they actually mean something?

Don’t get me wrong, what they did at the end of the regular season last year was nothing short of spectacular. Beating two #1 teams in a span of 14 days, the first ever to do so, was simply amazing and something I’ll always remember. But let’s get real here…

Auburn eventually lost to Georgia in the SEC title game. I said they lost… sorry, I meant they were dominated. The Tigers then brought in the new year in disappointing fashion when they lost to UCF (which then proclaimed themselves to be national champions). I know that the Tigers were very beat up and gassed, but it’s still is a loss…or losses.

If we are being honest, Auburn has been arguably the second best program in the SEC for about 8 seasons, other than 2012. This is why this kind of stuff bothers me. Is a division championship real? Sure, but it has virtually no weight.

I’m not mad about the rings themselves, as every team that wins their respective division gets them every year. I am frustrated about how our program is glamorizing them, in what was a season of unfinished business.

We as Auburn fans want to consider our program in the upper echelon of college football, right? Well that starts right here, by not claiming and celebrating division titles. I mean, come on, do we want to give rings for losing to Florida State in the 2013 BCS National Championship? I mean we did finish second. It’s the same logic.

Does Nick Saban show off his Western Division Championship rings? No. He is probably laughing in his barber shop right now just thinking about it.

We don’t claim titles like Bama does, but we should have the same mindset, with that being championship or bust.

Yes the team says they are using the rings for motivation, but I don’t agree with showing them off.

I do want to acknowledge how great last year was, but in the end, Auburn got spanked by Georgia in what was basically a playoff quarterfinal and then took an L in the Peach Bowl to a bunch of 2-star recruits.

In the entire history of sports, rings have always been about championships. Teams can’t wait to get their own piece of jewelry that will stand forever in time. Rings resemble the journey being complete and the quest for a title accomplished. They don’t resemble playing 2 good games, only to be ran out of Atlanta when it was for all the marbles.

I love Auburn. We all do. Let’s remember that we are better than patting ourselves on the back for finishing second. War Eagle.

Cameron Caldwell is a contributing writer for Power of Dixieland and his views, while passionate, don’t necessarily represent the views of the entire Power of Dixieland staff