Battle for No. 1: Alabama vs. Auburn isn’t just a football rivalry anymore

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Alabama head coach Nate Oats, left, shakes hands with Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. Both have helped revive the basketball programs at their traditionally football-obsessed schools. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

The epicenter of college basketball this weekend won’t be Storrs, Connecticut, Lawrence, Kansas, or somewhere on Tobacco Road.

All eyes will be on a pigskin-obsessed state long synonymous with football.

Auburn and Alabama clash Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa in by far the most anticipated game in the history of their century-old men’s basketball rivalry. The Tigers (22-2, 10-1) enter atop the AP Top 25 and the Crimson Tide (21-3, 10-1) pace the coaches poll, a scenario that would have read like sci-fi fantasy as recently as a decade ago.

To put into perspective how rare this is, consider that this will be the first-ever top-two men’s basketball matchup in SEC history. Alabama and Auburn had only both met as ranked teams three times before the arrival of Nate Oats and Bruce Pearl injected newfound national relevance into a rivalry that previously had been about in-state bragging rights.

Saturday’s matchup shifts attention away from both schools’ dismal showings on the gridiron this year. Without newly retired Nick Saban, Alabama staggered its way through a lackluster four-loss season and missed the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff. Auburn finished below .500 for the fourth consecutive year and sank further into mediocrity.

Meanwhile, both basketball programs have very real national title hopes, as the growing buzz for this season’s first of two regular-season matchups reflects. Tickets to Saturday’s game have been sold out for months. As of Friday morning, the secondary-market get-in price was $340 on StubHub and $319 on SeatGeek. Seats in Coleman Coliseum’s lower bowl are going for two or three times that much.

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne has held his current job for eight years, meaning he has been in Tuscaloosa for some of the most…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/battle-for-no-1-alabama-vs-auburn-isnt-just-a-football-rivalry-anymore-171220647.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-02-14 17:12:00

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