The Iron Bowl: 2017 Edition

It is hard to believe, but right before our eyes, the 2017-18 College Football season is close to its end. With the end approaching this can only mean one thing: Rivalry Weekend. While there are a ton of big time rivalries to be played this weekend, arguably the largest and biggest rivalry in college football will be played: the Iron Bowl. The Iron Bowl is the biggest football game in the state of Alabama each and every year and features Auburn University and the University of Alabama, two institutions and fan bases that cannot stand one another.

This year’s Iron Bowl, like so many that have come before it, will be huge in shaping the College Football landscape and playoff rankings. With Alabama being number one in the rankings and Auburn at six, the game has huge implications as the winner will clinch a spot in Atlanta at the SEC Championship game to take on Georgia with the SEC’s spot in the college football playoff on the line. The game is slated for a 2:30 central kickoff time on November 25th and the popular pregame show College Gameday will also be in Auburn for the highly anticipated match up.

The Auburn Tigers will come into the game with an overall record of 9-2, their only losses being at the hands of the Clemson Tigers and LSU Tigers, who have both respectively turned in good seasons. On November 11th, the Tigers got a huge win when they defeated the then number one Georgia Bulldogs with a major statement win, beating them by a final score of 40-17. Auburn has a lot of momentum coming into the highly anticipated game and has themselves in a great position to get into the College Football Playoff if they win out. The Auburn Tigers truly do “control their own destiny.”

The Alabama Crimson Tide will come into the game with an overall record of 11-0. Their beiggest wins this season have come against former #3 team Florida State week one and some solid wins over LSU and Mississippi State. As the season has gone on, Alabama has had plenty of injuries to key players and major pieces to the team. The Alabama defense has been exposed in a few games this season, but this can be credited due to injuries to seasoned leaders like Sean Dion Hamilton. Even though they have had their injuries, Alabama, like years prior, comes into the game unbeaten, ranked number one, and striving for their hallowed seventeenth National Championship. The Alabama faithful best believe head coach Nick Saban will have his team ready to play when they roll into “the plains” on November 25th.

With storylines on both sides and so much at stake in the 2017 version of the Iron Bowl, the game should be one for the ages. I’ll give the edge to the Tide, by a final score of Alabama 27 Auburn 14.